Bible Verse of the Day

Snow Play with My Little Miracles

February 21, 2013 in Entertainment, Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

We’re right smack in the middle of the School Winter Break now, and the kids are just enjoying the vacation.  Today, I single-handedly brought both of them grocery shopping and told them that if I was pleased with their behavior at the store, I’d take them out for some snow play.

I kept my promise.

After lunch, the kids were garbed in their snow gear: snow pants, snow boots, hat and mittens and we took a quick stroll to the little playground area in our apartment.  There was a slight breeze, but the kids were kept nice and toasty in their snow attire… and they had so much FUN!

 

Elegant word art (have some fun) from Bethany

A Visit from The Tooth Fairy

February 20, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

Last Sunday, as we were driving home from lunch and grocery shopping, Ethan suddenly announced, “Mommy, Mommy, my TOOTH just fell out!”

I turned around immediately and true enough, he was holding his tiny little incisor..yes, the one that had been wobbly for a little over 3 weeks now.  He was just telling me a few minutes before the incident, that he felt his tooth was going to fall out any time that day.  Apparently he had fiddled with it and it fell off!

I took the tooth from him and wrapped it in some tissue and then gave him some tissue to dab his gums of whatever blood that was there.  It did not hurt him because he had waited for it to fall off on its own, and he was so excited after that.  He didn’t have a toothless grin because his permanent tooth had already half-grown in the place of the baby tooth which had fallen out.  And he says he can now chew properly again. 🙂

When we reached home, I washed his tooth and put it in his tooth pouch.  Look how tiny the little tooth was! 🙂

Ethan wrote a short note for the tooth fairy and I put the pouch and the note under his pillow before he went to bed.

I had asked Ethan what he hoped the tooth fairy would give him in return for his tooth, and he said, “Ummm….maybe a little gift or a treat?” (I was pleasantly surprised and proud that he didn’t say “some money” :))

However, at close to 2a.m. Ethan awoke and excitedly told Daddy the Tooth Fairy had paid him a visit!  He had woken up and checked under his pillow!  LOL

But Daddy managed to ask him to go back to bed first and get a better look in the morning….so here’s his little Tooth Fairy treat! 🙂

Our boy is now looking forward to future Tooth Fairy visits.  He’s wondering when his next tooth is going to wobble!

 

Hannah’s Early Birthday Celebration in School

February 15, 2013 in Celebrations, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

I’m already 36+ weeks along, so being paranoid that I would not be able to do a simple birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her friends (when she clearly wants to), I made arrangements for an early celebration on Valentine’s Day.

As was the case with Ethan’s school, we were not allowed to bring in any food items, so I managed to get a cute craft kit for the kids.  Every kid in class would get a giraffe-shaped foam piece which they would then decorate to their liking using stickers and such, all provided in the kit.  Cool or what? 🙂

Hannah was absolutely looking forward to the Giraffe craft and kept on talking about it right till the day I had planned for it.  We did the craft with her friends in the morning, and all the kids had fun creating their own version of their giraffes.

It was the perfect way to spend Hannah’s birthday in school and also a kid’s Valentine’s Day and I was so thankful to be a part of it.  Hannah’s teacher was also very thoughtful and had taken a few pictures of the activity and then compiled the pictures into a little ring booklet, which I thought was so cute!  And of course, Hannah was beyond jubilation to take home her very own giraffe, which she named Sandy. 🙂

She’s now counting down the days to her actual birthday! 😀

Hannah Having Fun in Pre-K

February 13, 2013 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

It just dawned on me that I have not been updating the progress on Hannah’s days in school.  She’s currently in pre-K now and she goes for the half-day sessions, which is around 5 hours every day.  I normally drop her off at about 9:00a.m. after I drop Ethan off at school, and Hannah will be at school till about 2:30p.m. or so.  She takes lunch in school and sometimes even has a short nap before I arrive.

Of course, for security and privacy reasons, parents aren’t allowed to take photos of the kids in school, but we do get pictures of our kids sent home, and I always welcome these because it just goes to show how much fun Hannah has in school!  We’ve also enrolled her in the Phonics Adventures program which introduces and teaches phonics to early readers like Hannah.  So far, we are pleased that she enjoys her 1:1 phonics sessions, which she has twice a week.

Here are some of the activities she has been up to in school…the photos aren’t very clear, because I had to take a photo of the photo printouts that were sent home.

Ethan Is Seven Years Old!

February 1, 2013 in Celebrations, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Milestones | 2 comments

Yesterday, my little Ethan turned seven.  I still can’t believe how much he has grown.  I told him that now when someone asks how old he is, he can say, “I’m seven years old!” instead of his usual “I’m six…but I’m gonna be seven soon!” 🙂

Here in Massachusetts, schools are very strict about food being brought into the classrooms in view of hygiene and food allergy.  So instead of edible stuff for the kids, I prepared little birthday treats for every one of Ethan’s classmates, so that he could pass it round during snack time.  His teacher(s) had suggested something practical and useful for the kids like a pencil or a fun eraser, so here’s what we prepared:

The kids helped me with the packing and arranging.  The treats were just something very simple and useful: A mini memo pad and a cute little pencil.  The memo pads came in 5 different colors and the pencils were just fun-looking and colorful.  Ethan told me he had a great time passing these round to his friends, and they were thrilled to get them.

Back on the home front, we had a little celebration of our own.  What would a birthday be without a birthday cake eh?

That’s right!  I made him a Captain America shield cake! 🙂

He’d been consistently asking for it for a year and thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to make, but I ran into a few minor glitches when I realized that I had left my cake leveler, fondant smoother and offset spatula back in Penang.  So I had to just make do with whatever I had here, which explains why some parts of the cake were a bit uneven.

Ethan didn’t seem to mind though, and was really looking forward to blowing out the candle and eating the cake.

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Winter Festival

January 28, 2013 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

Last Friday evening, we attended the Winter Festival organized by Ethan’s school’s PTO.  It was like a mini carnival, with games, food and activities for the kids.  We were surprised by the turnout despite the freezing cold weather!

The festival was held in the school gym and the school cafeteria, and only Ethan needed a ticket (@$2).  Adults and kids 3 and under enjoyed free admission.

Ethan started by playing some basketball in the gym.

Unfortunately, he met with a mishap when he scored a basket in one of his games.  He’d jumped up and down in celebration and accidentally bumped his top incisors on a metal horizontal bar. 🙁

He was bleeding a little, but thankfully the bleeding stopped after a while.  However, he just wasn’t himself the rest of the evening, and it took him some time before he was back to his cheerful self.  Poor boy. 🙁

(At the time of writing, his teeth are okay.  He was feeling a little bit of sensitivity for a couple of days after the incident, but he’s okay now.)

I had also volunteered to bring in a cake for the Cake Walk.  Here’s a glimpse of some of the other cakes brought in by other volunteers.

The Cake Walk is a fun game open to all kids at $1 per dance.  All the participants will start dancing when the music is played and when the music stops, every one chooses a number to stand on.  A number will then be drawn from a can and the kid whose number is called will get to choose a cake of his/her choice!  The rest of the kids will win a consolation prize of a lollipop each.

Hannah wanted a go at the Cake Walk:

…but then she got upset when someone stood on the number she wanted to choose…in the end, she won a lollipop anyway.

And then, just before we left for home, the kids wanted to get their faces painted.

Meet Batman…or Batboy… 🙂

…and say hello to Little Miss Cheetah!

By the way, if you’re wondering what I used to wash the face paint off, I started with damp hands and then lathering up some shower gel and then applying it all over the face, gently massaging the face as I went along.  I rinsed off with some warm water, but only about 75% was rinsed off.  After drying the face, I used regular baby lotion with cotton pads and gently wiped off the remaining stains.  About 5% still remained after the first night, so I did the moisturizer thingy again the following day and managed to remove everything.

A Little Wobbly Tooth

January 24, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | No comments

Yesterday morning, while I was in the midst of waking Hannah up, Ethan happily rushed into the room after brushing his teeth and washing up, and excitedly announced, “Mommy, Mommy!!  One of my teeth is wobbling!!”

Yes, he had been anxiously awaiting the day when his first milk (baby) tooth would fall out, and he knew, as well as I did, that that day would be soon.  Most of his friends already had a few teeth out, but so far, Ethan has managed to keep all his milk teeth.

He opened his mouth wide and I checked his teeth, and true enough, one of his bottom right incisors was wiggling.  In the evening, I used a flashlight and saw the permanent incisor already sprouting, right behind the milk incisor!

It’s won’t be long now for the tooth fairy to visit us! 🙂

Getting into the School Spirit!

January 15, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | No comments

The elementary school that Ethan goes to assigns a special day each month called Spirit Day.  The aim is to have the teachers and students come together as one to promote the school spirit and also usually they would have a community or charity drive too.  The school Spirit Day for the month of January was held last Friday, and it was themed “Crazy Hat Day”.  Everyone was to wear a crazy hat to school and also if possible, bring something (like canned food items or toiletries) to be donated to the community cupboard.

So I made this simple crazy hat for Ethan, by sewing on several playdough cutters around the rim of his cap. 🙂

…and he had a great time in school!

In fact, I can tell that Ethan is really enjoying his school life here.  He brings back homework every Monday in a folder, and the homework is assigned for the whole week through Thursday.  Friday is when the homework is due, and of course, weekends are rest days for the kids, which is how it is supposed to be. 🙂

School hours are from 9:05a.m. to 3:05p.m., which means Ethan has lunch in school.  He makes his choice from a selection of 4 or 5 menu items each day, and I pack his lunch money is small ziploc bags for easy handling.  Initially, I had wanted to write a check in advance to pass to the cafeteria, but Ethan says he prefers it this way.  He feels more grown-up! 😀

Look At My Kitchen Mittens!

January 10, 2013 in Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

For weeks Hannah has been playing with her toy kitchen utensils and pretend food in the lovely little toy kitchen set we got her for Christmas.  In her own creative way, she has been using little plastic bags and wrappers as kitchen mittens.

It was an absolute eyesore for me, so I took out my sewing set and what I brought along with it, found some pieces of felt material and measured Hannah’s hands.  I simply sewed two pieces together using the backstitch (oh yes, I know what a backstitch is even though I did not take Home Science in school!), and then turned them inside out!

I made one mitten two days ago, and Hannah wanted another one, so now she has two, and it’s such a joy to see her “cooking” now.

Even more fulfilling is when she gave me the biggest widest smile and said, “Thank you for making me the kitchen mittens, Mommy!  I promise to share them with Ethan!”

Getting a Haircut

January 8, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah | No comments

It wasn’t easy finding a hair salon suitable for the kids over here.  Personally we feel haircuts are overpriced, but in any case, the kids were long overdue for a haircut and we decided to just walk in to a nearby salon after lunch last weekend.

This salon charges $12 for a kid’s haircut, not including tips.  And it was one of the cheapest we found too…

Anyway, the kids got their haircuts done at the same time, and they got to sit on these high cushions propped up on the regular salon chairs.

Ethan’s haircut took a little longer than Hannah’s because the hair stylist was not too adept at trimming his hair in the “slope-like” manner he was used to.

I forgot to mention that the $12 haircut also includes a hairwash, if you so desire.  I asked Hannah, and she was game for the hairwash, so this is the one and only picture I took of her having her first salon hairwash.

She seemed to enjoy it though, and didn’t mind the experience.  And now they both have brand new haircuts!! 😀

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