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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.
That night after the “No Breastfeeding Before Bedtime” incident, Ethan woke up (I think) once in the middle of the night. Not too bad I would say, but it was relatively harder to put him back to sleep after that. He seemed more well-rested though and only woke up way past 9:00a.m. the next morning. I was so worried something was wrong that I quickly took his temperature for sanity’s sake! This was because normally Ethan would be up and about at around 8:00a.m. 😛
It was going to be an exciting day ahead because we were going to the Family Carnival at The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. We all had breakfast together; Ethan had a wholesome and nutritious meal of oats with milk and slices of banana.
At the carnival, Ethan was VERY well-behaved. There weren’t any baby chairs in sight, so we stacked two chairs and Ethan sat on them. Another milestone? You bet! And what did our boy eat? Some wan ton mee, a strand of laksa and he had his first taste of orange juice! I gave Ethan a choice of Apple Juice, Orange Juice or water, and he reached for the orange cup, perhaps attracted to its color?
Ethan also got himself a balloon teddy at the carnival. You know, those balloons that could be bent and twisted till it resembled some cute thingy? Well, of course, he had to show his affection by biting the poor balloon teddy on its nose and thereby bursting it! Surprisingly he was not in the least bit perturbed by the loud blast… Mommy jumped up in shock but our boy was the picture of perfect coolness. The nice uncle replaced his *headless* balloon teddy with a new one, anyway. 🙂
After spending all our RM50 worth of coupons, we went home, took a shower and had a brief nap. It was playgroup day and Ethan needed all the energy in the world!
I want to remember this special and historical day for as long as I live. I want to have every single detail of today etched in my mind for ever. Read till the end and you’ll know why.
Our Saturday started before 8:00a.m. when Ethan woke both Pete and me up. Ethan had somehow *found* his way to our bed again the night before, and although for most part of the night we slept in the shape of an “I” or “H” or at times a “Z”, we all had a good night’s rest. Maybe it was because we all *knew* it was already the weekend 🙂 In typical Ethan fashion, he crawled over to me, put both his hands on my cheeks and tried to wake me up. My mind was awake but my eyelids were still closed, so he rolled over to Daddy’s side and started playing with Daddy instead. We lazed around in bed and soon got up for breakfast. Ethan shared a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosties with full cream milk with me. I didn’t want to give him too much because of the high sugar content. After that I made 2oz of Isomil + Pediasure for Ethan in a bottle and Pete tried bottle-feeding him. As expected, he rejected the bottle. So I tried giving him the bottle myself instead. Pete gave him the bottle cover to play with and Ethan had a field time putting the cover on the bottle and then removing it. He then grabbed hold of the bottle and opened his mouth wide while putting the bottle nipple into his mouth. We thought he would be happily drinking the milk then but alas! It was only for a while; he had hardly drank 2 sips and he was repeating the entire process over again: close bottle cover, remove bottle cover, play with bottle, pretend to drink from bottle. In the end I decided to mix the milk with some organic arrowroot cookies which I had bought for him a few weeks ago. Guess what? Cookies, he liked. Cookies + Milk mixture, he pushed away. So much for the semblance of a plan. As a last resort, I just poured the remainder of the milk into his mug and gave it to him to drink….and you know, I was surprised he actually drank a few gulps that way. Finally to make it a wholesome breakfast, Ethan had a cup of his favorite grape-flavored yogurt, which he finished joyfully. I then gave Ethan his shower, and after that I breastfed him.
Today, I introduced the shape sorter toy his Ipoh Ah Ma bought for him some months back. Ethan was very excited when he saw the new toy and began playing with it immediately, although he can’t really play it the right way yet. He can turn the hands of the clock on the toy though 😛
We then went out to have dim sum for brunch where Ethan demonstrated once again that he was really becoming a big boy, on the way to independence and self-feeding. He now eats his siew mai using a chopstick ala satay style. Yup, he eats with only one chopstick which is pushed into a piece of siew mai. He will eagerly hold the chopstick and feed himself the piece of siew mai, chomping away happily after that.
Oh, and following Uncle LB‘s suggestion, Ethan tried lormaikai for the first time today. It is of course a form of rice and we are not at all surprised that Ethan loves it!
Next, off we went to Queensbay Mall. I did some clothes shopping and then we went to Toys R Us. The toy car which Ethan took a fancy to had been shifted to the back of the store. So now all the toy cars were grouped together. Of course, Ethan had to take his weekly rides in them. Hmmm….I’m still wondering if I should get one for him…. the problem is where to put the car? He discovered the police car this week…. just look at him having the time of his life!
After that we were at Borders, where we allowed Ethan to wander around in the children’s section, much to his delight. Ummm…actually he also wandered OUT of the children’s section, much to HIS delight too…. and so it wasn’t too long before our boy got knocked out while I was carrying him. He fell asleep in my arms and after a while we placed him in the stroller, while he was still sleeping. We did our grocery shopping in Jusco and then proceeded to the elevator, ready to leave Queensbay Mall. However, as soon as the lift music played, Ethan woke up alert and happy. When we reached home it was already 5:00p.m. and after we unpacked, it was half past five.
And only THEN did I breastfeed Ethan. He was such a good boy, and didn’t even demand loudly for his milk. All I did was sit on the sofa, and he came up to me with this adorable puppy-dog look that said it all, “Mommy, can I have some milk, please?” How could I say no to that?
This was also the first time we had gone out shopping for more than 5 hours that I did NOT have to breastfeed Ethan in the Baby Room in Jusco. Very very good weaning progress indeed.
Ethan played with his toys for a while, watching some TV too. Then we headed out to Old Town for dinner. Nasi lemak and roti bakar were the order of the day. Since Ethan did not take a lot (most of it was just the nasi lemak), I made him another 2oz of Isomil + Pediasure when we got home. I mixed some oats with the milk so it became oatmeal! And was I glad I did! Ethan loved it and ate a lot of it 🙂 It was already about 9:00p.m. then.
Suddenly I had the idea of trying to put him to bed without breastfeeding him. After all, he had had a lot of the oatmeal and he was already very full by then. We gave him his warm shower and got him dressed in his peejays. I then immediately took him straight into the room, and tried to make him go to sleep. To distract him from breastfeeding, I hugged a pillow to my chest and just laid down with him on the bed. After some giggling and smiling, he tossed and turned and finally fell asleep amid my singing and humming the lullaby song his Ipoh Ah Ma sang to him when he was a little baby. It was about 10:15p.m. then. Yes, he fell asleep WITHOUT me breastfeeding him. This was the first time ever and I hope this will mark the first successful step towards a successful weaning ahead.
It was really an odd feeling when it dawned on me that my little boy did not need me to breastfeed him to make him go to sleep. On the one hand, I am happy that we are making progress in this arena, but on the other, there was a part of me that missed that special bond we shared. My labor of love would eventually come to and end soon. We knew this would happen sooner or later. Of course, Ethan has to grow up someday. But it still left me in a poignant state. Motherhood does strange things to people, and although I know I will feel a sense of emptiness inside of me when Ethan is fully weaned off, I am thankful that I had the privilege to enjoy the breastfeeding journey while it lasted.
For now, good night my darling Ethan Boy. Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite….! …..as clichéd as it may seem.
Open up and say “Aaaahhhhh”
Yesterday evening Pete and I had a cup of yogurt each, and as we were enjoying it, Ethan ran over to his Daddy, reached out his hand, held the spoon Pete was using, scooped a spoonful of yogurt and fed himself with it. He then walked away with a smug smile that reeked of, “So there! Told you I could do it!”
Hold the Handle
After yogurt, I gave him a mug of water. At home, Ethan will drink from his own adult-like yellow mug. I bought this plastic mug for him recently to prevent breakage in case he drops it. Normally he will just hold the mug on its sides with both hands and drink from it, but yesterday, he voluntarily reached out for the mug handle, held on to it, and with the other hand supporting the other side of the mug, drank from it! By the way, there is a growing probability that Ethan is a southpaw because he prefers to hold his spoon and mug handle with his left hand.
Leg Lifting
When I help Ethan put his pants on I will lift his leg one at a time, but just 2 days ago, when I was wearing his trousers for him, he leaned his body against me for support and lifted one leg and put it into the trouser leg hole, then did the same for the other. I thought it was just a fluke, but he did it again and again at different occasions. Even when he has his shower, he will put one hand on the shower stall wall, lift up one leg and put it under the running stream of water, and then the other leg. Very good balancing skills, I must say!
Just a few days ago, Ethan started saying something that sounded like “kay-bak” (chicken meat in Hokkien). Or was it “ke-bak”? Or maybe “kebab”? Hehehe..
Yesterday he woke up at around 6:30a.m., rolled around on the bed, sat up and said “kay-bak“. We don’t know for sure what it means yet, but we can’t wait to find out.
Here are some highlights from the month of May as our Ethan Boy turns 16 months:
Daddy/Mommy (singing): If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands….
Ethan grins widely, grabs either Daddy or Mommy’s hands, one in each of his hands, and *makes* US clap our hands together…and this continues till the end of the song.
A few months back, I wrote a brief post about what the name Ethan meant. I didn’t go into details then, but now since both Aunty Angie and Aunty Siew Hooi so graciously asked, I am going to elaborate more. And hey, I’ll even throw in the meaning of his Chinese name for good measure.
When I was pregnant with Ethan, of course like all first-time mommies, I was excited as to what I would name him. My reliable source of information was of course the internet, and I checked out many baby name sites before zeroing in on a few. Pete and I shortlisted several names, but all of them were either too common, too many syllables, too weird or reminded us of someone we didn’t want associated with our son. So names like Gabriel, Joshua, Kenneth… were all not chosen. When I suggested the name Ethan, Pete immediately said yes! You know, when you arrive at THE name, you would just know it… just like the time I selected my wedding dress. I just knew it was the perfect one for me when I put it on. At the time we selected the name Ethan, it was (I think) one of the top 5 names of the year 2005. Although Pete and I kept our choice of name a secret during my pregnancy, we were already talking to him all the time and calling him by name then.
And so unto us a child was born, … and we named him Ethan. Firm. Enduring. Strong. That’s our boy 🙂 . We also wanted a biblical name for him, and Ethan fit right into the bill. In the context of the Bible, Ethan is a name of Hebrew origin, and was a wise man who wrote the 89th Psalm.
With his christened name chosen, we now had to select his Chinese name. This was a much harder task than we’d imagined. With his surname is fixed, i.e. Chua (蔡 Cài), we had to get two other characters for his name. Since both Pete and I don’t know Mandarin that well (actually I can’t speak Mandarin to save my life!), and neither do both our parents, we decided to find out what the ancestral clan character was for Ethan’s generation. You know, Chinese families typically go by a unique identifying Chinese character in their names for a particular generation? We figured if we have that down pat, then we’d only need to look for one additional character… haha. We checked with Pete’s Mom, who checked with Pete’s aunt, who then informed us that for Ethan’s generation, the pattern to follow was: Chua <something> Choong. The “Choong” corresponds to the character 聪, from cōng míng (聪明), which means Intelligence. That sounded good, we thought, so we decided to go along with that.
So that left us with only the middle character of Ethan’s Chinese name. We thought it would be easy then but we were so wrong! There were so few characters that sounded good with “Choong” at the end, and in desperation we bought a couple of Chinese Name books to help us select a name. Pete’s Mom actually said it wasn’t necessary to follow the “Choong” ancestral clan name, given that it may very well not be the correct one for his generation and also because we had a hard time finding a suitable middle name to go with it. She even suggested we named him “Ee Choong”, for “first son” and if we are blessed with baby number 2, then it would be “Yee Choong” for “second son”, and so on!
In the end, we decided to enlist the help of our friends who were knowledgable in this field of name selection. One of my good friends had her hubby calculate the number of strokes that was suitably auspicious for Ethan’s middle Chinese name and came up with the result that we should select a character with either 8 strokes or 16 strokes. In fact, we were still undecided on the middle name even after Ethan was born. Then Pete had a good friend of his use the information from my friend to select a middle name that would fit that. In the process of investigation, Pete’s friend discovered that in order to obtain an auspicious middle name for Ethan, the character had to be either a water element or had to contain a water radical. So after much deliberation, investigation and sleepless nights, Pete’s friend found a perfect match. And it was really a perfect one, in every way.
Ethan’s middle name is Zé (泽). If it is written in Simplified Chinese, it takes 8 strokes; if it is written in Traditional Chinese, it takes 16 strokes, thus fulfilling both conditions of “either 8 or 16 strokes”. It also contains the water radical. And it means Brilliance. Ethan shares the same middle name as Jiang Ze Min and Mao Ze Dong.
We finalized his name just in the nick of time. After Ethan was born, we were only given 14 days to register Ethan’s birth at the National Registration Department, and Pete and I had the registration done on the 13th day after his birthday.
So in conclusion, his full name is Ethan Chua Ze Choong (蔡 泽 聪 ~ Cài Zé Cōng ), which carries the meaning of Firm, Enduring, Strong with a Brilliant Intelligence. Lately, Pete and I were commenting to ourselves that the name Ethan really suits our boy and his personality. We can’t imagine him having any other name. May he grow up to embody every aspect of his name.
And now, I would like to know what’s in the name for the following babies:
Charlotte
Felicia
Sze Yi
Samuel
Instructions
**Start Copy*
Proposition: What is the meaning of your kid’s name?
Requirements: Write about what or how or why you giving the name to your kids.
Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.
Tag Mode:
1st – You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below
2nd – Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.
The list
Msaufong–SQ & Kiki
Shoppingmum and Kids–Justin and Isabelle
Chooi Peng–Kai Wen
Judy–Terry
Dragonmummy–Nicole and Marcus
Jasmine–Faythe & Vyktore
Anggie–Jeremy Chang Ee Jay
Chanel–Jeriel Lim Jing Yong
A Mom’s Diary
Shooi – Bryan
Miche – My ACB
Sweetpea – My Little Fire
Yvonne – The Meaning of Ryan’s Name
ShoppingMum – Justin & Isabelle
Judy – Meaning of the name Terry
LiL’ deviL – Mini Hawke
Mrs. Wallace Notes – My Daughter Name
Raising Belle – Monkey Girl
Hin Lerk’s Diary – The meaning of his name
Our Baby Evan – What’s in your name?
Joyce– The Name Game of Fame
Ethan used to show affection by biting on my chin. But now, I am proud to proclaim that I have managed to train him to give me a kiss on the cheek 🙂 When I say, “Ethan, come give Mommy a kiss!”, he will walk over to me, hold my head in his hands and give me a kiss. He doesn’t do it to anyone else except Pete and me. Everyone else gets the “head-bang” treatment as a sign of affection. Hahaha…
There’s something about chopsticks that fascinates Ethan so. When I started giving him siew mai from our dim summeals, I gave it to him with chopsticks. He would gobble each morsel of the food eagerly and ask for more. But when I peel off a piece of char siew pau like what I normally do and offered it to him by hand, he pushed it away! When I gave him porridge using a spoon, he rejected it. But the funny thing is, if I use a pair of chopsticks and scoop up that same bit of the porridge, and feed it to him, he takes it without any complaints! Isn’t that odd?
Same thing happened when we went to the New World Park hawker center late last Saturday afternoon. I am very pleased to note that the hawker center now has baby chairs available! And they are the kind that Ethan is VERY used to: the IKEA baby high chair, and furthermore it comes with a tray 🙂 So no more sitting in the stroller during our meals at New World now! Anyway, we ordered wan ton mee, and when our orders arrived, Ethan of course excitedly demanded for food. You know, with the wan ton mee looking as delicious asthis, I’m not in the least bit surprised.
I fed him the wan ton mee with chopsticks, sometimes twirling it around the chopsticks so it would be easier for him to eat it. Then I put some of the mee on a spoon, but strangely enough, he pushed it away! I tried this several times, but it was always the same…don’t know what it is with chopsticks that is so interesting to him. Oh yeah, we noticed that Ethan has also mastered the skill of slurping a strand of noodle too, and he does it with such finesse, it’s such a delight to watch! And after meal time, it was time to wash it all down with some water! Look at how Ethan is quenching his thirst!
So… it has been 15.5 months…*gives myself several pats on my back for a job well done*
Yes, all of 15.5 months that Ethan has been fed exclusively on Mommy’s breast milk. Well, other than the introduction of solids when he was 6.5 months old, whatever milk he has taken is solely breast milk.
And now it’s finally time to introduce formula milk. My frozen EBM stock in the freezer has dramatically dwindled from an impressive 30-40 feeds to a mere 5-6 feeds now. I am producing just enough for Ethan these days, sometimes less, and that’s when I rely on my freezer stock. My friends were teasing me that I would not be able to go through with the introduction last weekend, because I had postponed it indefinitely for a couple of weeks now. But I braced myself for it, and kept to my word. So late last Saturday afternoon, I decided to take that gigantic leap and opened that tin of Enfapro A+, one of the samples I had obtained from the pediatrician.
The pediatrician recommended that we try introducing formula to Ethan in a cup. And since Ethan is now very used to drinking from a cup, be it a cup with a spout or a regular adult cup, I made just 2oz of the formula and put it into his Nuby sippy cup. Before pouring it into the cup, I tasted a little of the formula milk out of curiosity to see what it tastes like… I had heard horror stories from some moms that it tasted horrible! Surprisingly though, it tasted like any normal powdered milk would taste like, so I was reassured. Ethan would be fine with it, or so I thought…
So back to the cup…the spout on Ethan’s Nuby cup is really soft and so I thought the transition from nipple to spout would not be so drastic. Ethan was all excited when he saw the cup, but just as the spout touched his lips he pushed the cup away immediately. He had not even drank the milk, let alone sip it! So wokay….I poured the milk into my ceramic mug. He loves to drink water from my mug and I reckoned he would not be bothered by it. Oh, I was SO WRONG! He held the mug eagerly at first and attempted to drink the milk that was in it. But just one sniff from that cute little nose of his and he pushed the mug away in disgust. So much for my first attempt. 😛
The next day, I tried using the Nuby cup again but AGAIN, Ethan pushed the cup away angrily! This happened several times, and I ended up pouring the formula away… no love lost there! 😛 On my 3rd attempt of the weekend, I put the milk into a regular Avent milk bottle and tried feeding him with it. Amid angry wails and protests, he totally rejected the bottle. TOTALLY. Hmmm…ok time for Plan B….I had also bought some boxes of UHT Full Cream milk, so I decided to give that to Ethan instead. As usual, he was excited when he saw the box and grabbed it eagerly. But he grabbed it way too hard and the milk splurted all over the couch and floor. I guess I’ll try next time then. SIGH….
So the next day, Monday, I brought the whole tin of Enfapro to the baby sitter’s place and gave her instructions on how to feed him. I told her to try giving him some formula when the EBM had all been fed. So after work on Monday when we went to pick Ethan up, I was anxious to find out how Mrs Tan had fared in her attempt. She told me that she did not have a chance to give him the formula yet, because he had just had his meal of porridge when we arrived. So she would try the next day instead. Tuesday evening: Mrs Tan said that Ethan really REALLY didn’t want the formula AT ALL. He pushed the bottle away as if it were a plague, and allow the formula milk to dribble from his mouth! But she said that he was okay with oats mixed with formula milk, so that’s a consolation.
So what to do now? My plan is to persist with trying to feed him one feed of formula every day, and if he is still rejecting it then we would probably try another brand. Yesterday night, I gave him some Milo from the box and he drank a little using the straw. But after that he again exhibited his enormous strength and spilled Milo all over himself and me…ah well…the sharing of chocolatey goodness huh?
Is it going to be cheese and yogurt for Ethan boy soon? Is it going to be full cream milk? Formula? Which brand? Milo? The saga continues….stay tuned.