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“Mommy…?”
“Yes, sweetie…what is it?”
“Can you guess what letter this is?” (She was holding up two popsicle sticks vertically in a straight line, and holding them in the middle)
“Yes, I can! It’s the letter ‘I’!”
(silence)
“Did I get it right? Is it the letter ‘I’?”
“NO, it’s not right..”
“Huh? Why? What letter is it then?”
“It’s the letter ‘l’!”
Scrap Credits
My Sweet Love kit from Lady Papillon Design
Weight
Should be about 14.3 kilos, at least.
Height
About 91 cm
Teeth
19 teeth, or almost there… Right now, she has 4 incisors on the upper jaw, 3 incisors bottom jaw; 2 canines upper jaw, 2 canines bottom jaw; 4 pramolars and 4 more back pramolars are making their appearance slowly but surely.
She can more or less brush her own teeth now, including squeezing the toothpaste onto her toothbrush, gargling and spitting, however, I still brush for her after that. Because of the good example shown by her brother, Hannah brushes her teeth twice daily: morning and night 🙂
Developmental Milestones
Toilet Training
Hannah’s toilet training has been getting better and better every day. Sometimes I don’t even let her wear pull-ups, and she will wear either the cloth trainer pants or her panties. Her teachers in school do the same and she has had close to zero accidents.
One time, we were out having lunch after school and she said she needed to go peepee. I told her that there was no toilet around (actually the toilet was very far away), and I told her it’s okay just for this time to go in her pull-ups. But then she replied, “But I’m not wearing pull-ups Mommy!”
She will tell us she needs to “peepee” or “poopoo” and almost all the time, there will be results 🙂
Food and Feeding
Appetite is good, but the only thing she needs to work on is to eat more greens!
Others
On the actual day Ethan turned 6 this year (January 31st), we planned a short celebration in school, as was usually the case.
Ethan had already requested for his specially-made birthday cake months in advance, and he had been very consistent about it; he’d wanted a Lightning McQueen birthday cake. So, … no two ways about it…I presented him with the cake he wanted. And he was ecstatic!
It was a lengthy process making that cake, but well worth the effort…especially just seeing the joy on Ethan’s face…
However, having a cake for a birthday celebration in school wasn’t the only thing we needed to plan…
There were still the party packs to think of, and this year we wanted to give Ethan’s friends a memento from him, along with some goodies and useful items.
I made yummy sugar cookies, in the shape of cars… in line with the theme of the celebration…
…decorated with royal icing in red and black…
…and then, personalized with each child’s name, and individually wrapped 🙂
…and then we got these neat little steel pencil holders shaped like tins and packed the sugar cookies, some oatmeal cookies and jelly, and a couple of pencils in them.
This was where my trusty assistant came in, and he worked like clockwork… 🙂
This year, because it is Ethan’s last year in preschool, we decided to treat him to a special birthday party celebration with his friends at one of Ethan’s favorite places: AdventureZone in Golden Sands, Penang.
He was all excited in the days leading up to the birthday party, and kept asking me to show him the guest list of confirmed attendees. On the day itself, he was bugging us to leave quickly so we won’t be late. Such was the enthusiasm of our little Mr Bulat.
There were 2 birthday themed rooms to choose from: Pirate and Circus, and Ethan had chosen the Circus Theme. However the organizers made a mistake and prepared the Pirate room for him instead. Rather than have uncoordinated gift packs, Ethan was a good sport and agreed to go along with the Pirate theme. Of course, the organizers were very apologetic and gave us some *special privileges* because of the mistake.
Ethan’s friends started arriving quite punctually, and we also invited 2 of Hannah’s friends from school, just so she would not feel out of place. All the kids (and adults) had a great time playing in the play area…well actually it was kinda difficult to get good shots of the kids because everything was moving so fast!
After about an hour of play in the play area, the kids were gathered upstairs for the cake-cutting and their meal in the birthday room.
The days seem to pass by so very fast these days…is it just me, or does everyone else feel the same?
Anyway, here are some precious shots from our Chinese New Year celebration recently (okay, not TOO recent, I know…. :P). We spent the eve in Taiping and drove to Ipoh on the 1st day. We were back in Penang on the 2nd day. Thankfully, the highway was smooth-sailing all the way 🙂
Peekaboo!!
Pauline Kor Kor got this mini lion head for the kids to play with, and as expected, it was an instant hit!
Photo session with the little belle of the day…
In Ipoh, the kids enjoyed their spaghetti dinner, lovingly cooked by Ipoh Ah Ma…
And after dinner, we had a very simple, pre-birthday celebration for Ethan, with a delectable chocolate moist cake…
However, it obviously had spent way too much time in the fridge, so I had to use a chopstick to make candle imprints for the candles to stand!
Birthday boy in a pensive, reflective mood…probably touched by the surprise gesture…
See? I wasn’t kidding about the cake spending too much time in the fridge…
…but you know what? It was a very YUMMY-licious cake, that’s for sure!
A Chinese New Year reunion for the cousins… 🙂
Day 3 was our trip to the Singapore Zoo (wouldn’t miss it for the world!) – It was Hannah’s first time, but Ethan could hardly remember his first, so it was sort of a brand new experience for both of them. We took the hotel shuttle to Orchard MRT and then boarded the MRT to a station near the zoo. Thereafter we arrived at the zoo via bus.
The weather was scorching hot, but still we managed to see a fair bit of animals. The kids were ecstatic to see the animals in real life, but when the kids got restless, the cameraman was still busy taking animal photos…
We ended up having our lunch in KFC and Hannah was especially excited about the animal shaped chairs, switching from zebra to elephant to lion to panda…
We couldn’t escape it. KFC was situated right smack in the middle of Rainforest Kidzworld, just next to the Wet Play Area. And of course Ethan and Hannah wanted in on the fun…this time (as opposed to when we were at Jurong Birdpark), I remembered to bring their swimming gear.
Ethan was well above the height requirement, but Hannah was at the height where she needed an adult to accompany her…so hmmm…what to do???
Since Mommy was the designated photographer, that leaves just Daddy…with one problem. I forgot to bring the ADULTS’ swimgear. So Daddy had to go in with his shirt and jeans…which actually turned out to be a splendid idea, up till the moment when a gigantic bucket of water poured water all over him! 😀
Here are some other precious shots from the Wet Play area:
We made it a point to catch the Elephants of Asia show, which we remembered was really good, from our last visit to the zoo.
The children definitely agreed. The show was a full house, and we had to make do by sitting on the steps along the actual benches. But what made the experience memorable was when Ethan and Hannah experienced feeding the elephants some fruits and vegetables.
“Mommy, don’t we need to peel the bananas for the elephants?” Ethan asked.
Oh yeah…and Ethan will tell you that he witnessed an orang utan peeing from one of the overhead tree branches onto the road below. It was a good thing no one was standing there at that time!
We also succumbed to the temptation of an icy cold sensation in the form of Icy Slush…something like a slushee, but served in a really tall novelty container with a sippy straw. The kids LURVED it!!
Amazing how we managed to have loads of fun despite the hot hot weather…
Yes, the many different colorful elephant statues which were all over Singapore made their appearance in the zoo too…
…and then, just as we were wondering how the kids can still have so much energy left in them, little Hannah fell asleep on my shoulder as we were making our way out of the zoo in the evening (Carrying a sleeping toddler was like déjà vu from our last Singapore Zoo trip)
We decided to take a cab back to our hotel then, since we were running a little late and were meeting some friends for dinner later. Turned out we reached our hotel with a few minutes to spare for a much-needed toilet break and quick freshening-up.
Wonder why Ethan is so excited about dinner?
Our friends took us to supposedly the best chicken rice restaurant in Singapore…and it definitely did not fail to deliver.
The Boon Tong Kee restaurant we went to was the one next to the Boon Keng MRT station. Ethan had seconds and was enjoying every single morsel on his plate…while Hannah enjoyed nibbling on the soft and succulent roasted pork ribs.
See how yummy it looks?
All in all, a very eventful day which ended on a tasty and delicious note!
*****
Previously: Day 2 Singapore Getaway: Jurong Bird Park
Next: Day 4 Singapore Getaway: From Orchard to Sentosa
This year marks the 3rd consecutive year in a row that Ethan’s picture has been featured on the Birthday Book on Astro Channel 613, previously Playhouse Disney, but now known as Disney Junior.
However, he did not receive any letter or birthday stickers from Disney Junior informing him of the feature, like he did in previous years. As such, we were not able to record the feature when it was shown on TV, as we did not know what time slots to wait for. Instead I managed to record it off the computer, from the Disney Junior site.
The background *accompaniment* you hear is courtesy of Ethan and Hannah…and sorry for the streaming of the video, which was not very smooth.
Scrap Credits
May Morn kit from Carjazi Designs
Stamp Cluster 7 from Lindsay Jane Designs
Romance elements from Valentina’s Creations
Weight
14 kilos (it was 14.3 kilos at the doc’s on Feb 1st)
Height
About 91 cm
Teeth
19 teeth, or almost there… Right now, she has 4 incisors on the upper jaw, 3 incisors bottom jaw; 2 canines upper jaw, 2 canines bottom jaw; 4 pramolars and 4 more back pramolars are making their appearance slowly but surely.
Developmental Milestones
Toilet Training
Toilet training has seen a vast improvement in the recent weeks. She wears pull-ups when she is in school, which makes her feel like a “big girl”. And now she will tell us when she needs to go pee pee. When we are out, she’ll tell me, “Mommy, I need to go pee pee. I’m wearing pull-ups so I can go. I can hold, Mommy.”
I’ve told her that if she can keep her pull-ups dry, I’ll let her wear panties 🙂
Food and Feeding
Very adventurous in her food, and will try almost anything, as long as it’s not *spicy* 😛
Ethan and Hannah had a Chinese New Year school celebration last Friday, where the kids were requested to dress up in their traditional attire or something red. Managed to snap this cute picture before we left for school.
Adorable, ain’t it?
She specifically requested me to plait her hair that way for her. 🙂
Before it goes way past Chinese New Year and I have another to-do post to publish, allow me to take you back to the not too distant past and share how we celebrated our Christmas last year.
Our Christmas Eve was spent in Taiping, and although most adults looked forward to the steamboat dinner, the kids’ highlight of the day would be the paddle pool session, courtesy of Ethan & Hannah’s Patrick Ah Chek. It was an impromptu session, so I did not pack the kids’ swimsuits, but we made do with shorts and tank tops anyways.
It was certainly a welcome activity in the hot scorching weather (if only the pool was bigger, I would have hopped in myself!). The kids really enjoyed themselves, save for cousin Jonathan, who was taking his afternoon nap.
Definitely a great prequel to the yummy steamboat dinner we had at home that night. No fancy restaurant could beat a cozy gathering at home with family, and warm food for the tummy…
…and that’s how it came to be…all the screaming and noise died down when the four cousins fell to the temptation of ice cream…
All the bowls had equal amounts of ice cream, but Hannah, no surprise at all, finished her bowl first and asked for seconds…look at her eyeing Phoebe’s bowl…
After-dinner activity for the kids: Uncle Tee Bin busy *hiding* candy canes on the Christmas tree, and then getting the kids to look for them.
Next: gift time! Because of logistic reasons and because “some people” were too eager to open their presents, we had a first round of gifts that Christmas eve.
We went to church after that, and only came back home after midnight. The kids were really tired and fell asleep soundly.
And so did I.
On Christmas Day we took a drive to Ipoh, and the kids were very excited to see Ah Ma and Ah Kong again. It was very apparent that they’d missed my Dad because they kept sticking close to him, especially Hannah.
We had a scrumptious dinner at a restaurant which frankly serves the best chicken chop ever 🙂
It was back home to Penang the next day where we had a few more presents to open. Ethan had handpicked a present especially for Hannah, from himself:
…and he was visibly touched when he found out that Hannah also had a gift for him. He was eagerly looking forward to opening it.
