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Little Miracles · Growing Up
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Growing Up

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Mommy’s Birthday (featuring Ethan Boy as Guest Blogger)

October 22, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 14 comments

I asked Mommy for permission to put up another post as a guest blogger since it is a post for her birthday.  And I am so glad she said okay 🙂

Last Saturday, Daddy, Mommy and I went to the E&O hotel for Mommy’s birthday eve lunch.  They had seafood fried rice that day and I was very eager to show off my self-feeding skills.  I get a kick out of eating using the spoon all by myself, and feel a sense of accomplishment when Daddy and Mommy tell me “Good Boy!”  As you can see, I enjoyed myself very much and was very reluctant to leave the place.  I love to play with the window sills and run around the restaurant.  After lunch, Daddy, Mommy and I took a short leisurely stroll by the sea.  But it was only for about 5 minutes or so, then I ran back inside, with Mommy and Daddy hot on my heels.  Some good exercise I gave them after the buffet eh? 🙂

On Sunday (Mommy’s birthday), I woke up and gave Mommy the sweetest smile ever and hugged her.  Then I asked her to go out of the room with me because I just poo-pooed in my pants. 

 

That very same day, Ah Ma and Ah Kong from Taiping came to Penang to visit together with Kor-kor.  We went to Maple Gold for lunch with Ah Chek and Aunty Christine also.  Here, I had the opportunity to show off my drumming skills with a pair of chopsticks.  Then I had yummy steamed rice with tofu and vege for lunch.  I bet Daddy and Mommy must have been very proud of me because I finished about one bowl of rice! 🙂  Of course, when I found that feeding myself with the spoon took a very long time, I decided to use my hands instead.

Mommy had a birthday cake too.  Daddy was singing a Happy Birthday song really loudly but I haven’t learnt it yet.  I hope to be able to sing that song next year for Mommy.

Raya Holidays: Music Maker

October 16, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Vacation | 4 comments


Scrap Credits: Sun Porch kit by Amy Teets

A four-day weekend awaited us in conjunction with the Hari Raya holidays, so we decided to make a trip to Ipoh on Saturday.  Ethan’s  Ah Ma and Ah Kong would certainly be pleased to see him. 🙂 For some reason, Ethan was very restless the entire journey, choosing to scream his lungs out, so much so that I had to move to the back seat to entertain him.

Anyway, we arrived in Ipoh sometime after lunch on Saturday and Ethan wasted no time in getting acquainted with his surrroundings.  He loved to climb atop the chairs in the living room, sat there for a moment, and then ran into my room and closed and open the door.

But what fascinated him a lot was probably the piano.  I put him on my lap and allowed him to touch and *play* on the keyboard. Soon enough, to our horror, he even figured out how to lift the cover of the piano!  Yep, he was tall enough to reach now… We really had to keep our eyes peeled on him at all times!  He would then lead me to the piano chair and ask to be placed on my lap so that he could proceed with his *masterpiece*.

Yes, I am very proud of my little big boy, the maestro at work.

Daddy’s One Year Wiser

October 9, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up | 6 comments

The rain did not dampen our spirits.
The traffic jam all the way downtown was a minor hurdle we overcame.
The gloominess was dealt a 180 degrees turn because it was Daddy’s birthday last Saturday (Yay! Cue Ethan boy to clap his hands with glee), and to celebrate, we all went to the E&O to savour the lunch buffet spread there.

I had heard that the buffet there is very good and that the spread had a lot of variety, so I was curious to see for myself. It was once again good to visit the E&O because it brought back good memories of our wedding 3 years ago.

The buffet lunch was at Sarkies Corner and as usual, I was charmed by the old world setting in the restaurant. The atmosphere was relaxed and very casual, with fantastic service from the restaurant staff. The food was marvelous, to say the least. I hardly ever take fried rice at buffets, but there was something about the one they served that was very tempting. And I had no regrets because I’ll have to say it was one of the best fried rice I have ever tasted. Even Ethan agreed wholeheartedly, and he ate quite a bit of it too. The generous garnishings of shrimp in the fried rice was a definite welcome indeed. Ethan also loved the pumpkin soup, and so did we. I loved it that they had 2 choices of soup: pumpkin and broccoli, both being healthy choices for the discerning diner.

And for the not-so-health-conscious, there was also char koay teow available, the halal variety, mind you. Again, very generous with the shrimp, which were all so fresh and succulent, just the way we like it. I think I had about 10 shrimps in my one plate of char koay teow!

I tell you, everything was so good; Hainanese chicken rice, lamb masala, grilled stingray and salmon, kerabu, oh and of course, any buffet would not be complete without dessert. We enjoyed the guilingao, cheese cake, custards, mousse and ice cream. By the time we were done, we could hardly move! But Ethan, on the other hand, was very much playing the part of an energizer bunny, running all around the restaurant and the hotel lobby, checking out window sills, squeezing his way through every nook and cranny, waving at everyone around him, running to the lifts and waiting for it to open…well, he even got a lollipop from the restaurant manager!

What a splendid birthday lunch we had! The next time I come for the lunch, I am definitely wearing looser clothing! *wink*

All we had was Fun, Fun, Fun!

October 1, 2007 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up | 5 comments

Okay, don’t shoot me because this is going to be yet another post on Friday’s.  But I don’t care what you say because we LOVE the food there.  The service is excellent and the ambience is just awesome.  Last night will go down as one of the best Friday’s outing we ever experienced.

When we arrived at the restaurant, they had this set meal promotion going on where a set of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert costs RM39.90++.  I immediately decided on ordering this set when a quick check assured me that the mocha mud pie was one of the two dessert options available.  Well, we ended up ordering TWO sets and of course, the kid’s spaghetti for Ethan.

All I can say is the food was so good, I would literally make space in my stomach if I had to!  Hehe…I finally got a chance to taste that elusive and much-talked-about mocha mud pie!  By the time we were done, we could barely move!

Ethan, on the other hand, was very excited about the entire experience.  No sooner had he finished his meal, he began walking around and gestured for us to bring him to the washroom to wash his hands.  Over and over again.  Then he would giggle loudly when one of the servers in Friday’s played with him.  When a birthday song was sung in Friday’s, Ethan enthusiastically clapped his hands and smiled widely.  Sometimes he would shout “Aaaahhhhh….” as if he was singing too!  Sporting his new “2nd in Command After Dad” t-shirt, you could tell Ethan was very much at home there.  And when we were about to leave, he cheerfully waved buh-bye to all and sundry.  Oh, and of course we took home another balloon 😀

So, you tell me, did Ethan enjoy himself?

A Tent and A Balloon

September 25, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 6 comments

During our last trip to Ikea in August, we ended up buying a tent…no, actually it is a tent with an igloo motif… for Ethan. There was a model set up in the children’s department in Ikea and Ethan was intrigued by it almost immediately! Although he fell down and hit his forehead whilst playing, we still bought the tent. So Pete was of course given the official task of setting up the tent, and when it was up we expected Ethan to be excited by it. Unfortunately our boy didn’t take a fancy to it at all. He would not even enter the tent. We figured it could be because of the fall earlier on in Ikea. Or maybe because the tent did not have a door; it just had an opening. So we did what any parent would do: we put his toys in the tent to lure him into it. You know what he did? He crawled in and dragged the toys out! He totally didn’t want to BE in the tent! Another method we employed in the hope of luring him into the tent was to take turns between Pete and I to enter the tent, then of course, Ethan would follow suit.

Lately however, we are pleased to note that Ethan has taken a liking to the tent. When we come home every day, the first thing he would do is to crawl eagerly into the tent. By the way, every time we go to Friday’s Ethan would request for a balloon. Now that balloon of his resides in the tent. So when he crawls into the tent, he would just hold the balloon and sit there with it. There’s a net opening at the top of the tent too, so we get to play peekaboo with him when he is in it… and you KNOW how kids love peekaboo, right?

Ethan has also found innovative methods to *play* with the tent:

  • Stand inside and push/lift the walls of the tent, resulting in the entire tent looking as though it will topple over
  • Push against the walls of the tent from outside, sometimes lifting the whole tent up.
  • Walk around the tent
  • Hold my hand and guide *me* to walk around the tent

Speaking of balloons, we need to get a new balloon from Friday’s every time the old one gets deflated. There’s something about balloons that interests kids, and Ethan is no different. On several occasions, he has attempted to use his *charm* to get some other kids’ balloon too.

A tent and a balloon – those are the latest items in Ethan’s toy collection. I can’t wait to see what’s coming up next…

Desperate Measures

September 12, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 5 comments

We must have gone through almost all types of infant cough medication, all in the fervent hopes of making Ethan recover completely from his cough. It breaks my heart so to hear him coughing, because his cough is of the forceful kind, and he sounds like he is suffering whenever he coughs.

First, we gave him Rhinatiol from Dr Jessica. After a few days when there was no improvement, we switched to MucoFlux, which was also prescribed by Dr Jessica. Two days into the medication and there was still no sign of recovery. Pete and I then decided to try the Vicks method. No, no, it is not the application of Baby Vicks to his chest and back (we already do that every day anyway). The Vicks method is one that has been circulating the internet, suggesting that to cure a cough, all we need to do is to rub some Vicks liberally on the soles of his feet and put on a pair of socks. All this we did when he was in dreamland. Although it reduced the cough slightly, Ethan was still coughing. We did it for 2-3 days. Well, perhaps it was because we used Vicks Baby Rub instead of (adult) Vicks. (The regular adult Vicks was to be administered on kids aged 2 and above only).

The next thing we tried was aromatherapy. I quickly bought a bottle of Magnolia essential oil, rubbed 2 drops vigorously in my palm and applied it to Ethan’s front and back, and also his throat area. There was some level of improvement in his recovery rate, and his cough appeared to faze off, but we were not satisfied, because he was not completely healed yet.

So when push came to shove, we decided to turn to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Charlotte‘s mom had told me that she gave Charlotte Pak Poh when she was coughing, and it cured her cough within 2 days. On top of that, Charlotte did not need to be forced to take the medicine. It was worth a shot. Such is the desperation of a parent. So we got a box consisting of 6 powder vials of Pak Poh from Eu Yan Sang. I used just one teaspoon of warm water to make the Pak Poh mixture for Ethan, tried giving it to him, but he rejected it immediately. I then tried mixing it with his favorite yogurt, but although he took a little bit, he was not very happy when his taste-buds told him that the bitter-tasting Pak Poh marred the taste of his yogurt. We had no choice but to shoot the mixture straight down his throat using the syringe.

And now after SIX torturous sessions, Ethan is finally medicine-free, and has been so for about a week now. He still coughs slightly, but is getting better every day. I’m praying and praying and praying…. We’ll leave it to his antibodies to do the work then.

Going Going Green…

September 3, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 17 comments

Check out what I got for Ethan last Merdeka weekend:

Yep, those cute adorably colorful thingies you see there are Ethan’s new Bumwear Cloth Diapers, which I got from Sin Dee. Don’t they look gorgeous?

I had known all about Bumwear Cloth Diapers for a long time now, yes, even before I gave birth to Ethan, but I only started revisiting the idea about two weeks ago.  The prospect of going *cloth* has been really enticing and I had been tinkering about getting them for Ethan. Our boy has all along been on disposable diapers. I did use the traditional cloth nappies for him when he was a newborn, but since he was a fully breastfed baby then, his poo was really runny, and well…let’s just say there were quite a number of unwanted *accidents*. That, plus the toll of having to wash the nappies day in and day out made me switch to disposables. It was very convenient and hassle-free.  Although not very friendly on the wallet, disposable diapers were very easy to use and throw.

However, I recently took a step back and decided to make a change. For the better.

I learnt about disposable diapers causing an increase on scrotal temperature in boy babies, which could potentially lead to infertility.  There has not been enough proven evidence that this is entirely true, but the facts were enough to raise a concern (at least with me).  And this is one of the main reasons why I decided to make that switch.  Don’t get me wrong, I am also switching because of the increasing landfill problem caused by disposables and also because of the toxic chemicals used in disposables, but while the change I make now would only make a small difference in the landfill problem, it would make a significant change to Ethan’s comfort 🙂  And that’s mighty important to me!

Switching to cloth diapers would not make a whole lot of a difference cost-wise too, because Ethan is already 19 months old.  Those who have been using cloth diapers since baby was born would see a huge savings in the long run.  Besides, we will still need to launder the cloth diapers which would also take up some time and effort on our part.  I have not decided to make a full switch or not yet, because I want to try these new Bumwear diapers first before I consider introducing them to Mrs Tan.  However, the extra effort I put in will be well worth the effort.

For one, these BumWear diapers are nothing like the conventional nappies.  These are so cool and adorable looking, plus they come with diaper inserts which allow fluid to be absorbed with tremendous ease.  Also, using these BumWear diapers would mean I do not need to apply barrier cream like Drapolene anymore!  One of my concerns was that with these cloth diapers, they would not be able to last through the night.  However, I discovered that by using 2 inserts, the absorption is doubled and I can then use these throughout the night, just like any ordinary disposable diaper.

Tonight is the very first time Ethan went to bed garbed in his Bumwear diapers.  Doesn’t he look adorable?  Check out that look he is giving…looking very much like a model eh? *wink*

In the face of Adversity…

August 29, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments


Scrap template from Lindsay Jane Designs,
papers from Lindsay Jane Designs & Anita Designs

We adults can certainly learn a thing or two from kids.  Forgiveness, tolerance and most importantly, just be happy!

Yes,… Ethan taught me to smile… even after he had accidentally slipped and bruised the upper corner of his right eye while climbing in and out of his bath tub which he doesn’t use anymore.  Just SMILE and the pain will all go away…. see how easy it is?

It’s all in his eyes

August 29, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up | 7 comments

When it rains, it really pours… SIGH

Just as Ethan was on the road to full recovery from his recent illness, we noticed that his eyes seemed puffy and red just a couple of days ago. When he woke up in the morning, he had some yellowish discharge, which I initially dismissed as tiredness. But then he began rubbing his eyes frequently, resulting in his eyes getting swollen. Even when I applied breastmilk on his eye area, it only helped reduce the swelling temporarily. At night, our fears were confirmed when the yellowish discharge returned in both eyes. As a gungho mommy, I promptly referred to my Dr Miriam Stoppard childcare book, which told me Ethan could have blepharitis, a common eye infection amongst babies and toddlers. To clean and soothe his eye area, I wet a cotton pad with warm boiled water and wiped once from inner corner of the eye to the outer corner.

On Tuesday, we were due to visit Dr Jessica for Ethan’s 19th-month checkup and JE vaccination. On that morning, I called Dr Jessica and told her Ethan probably had an eye infection and on top of that, he was also nursing a slight cough. She told us to bring him in anyway for the checkup and she would then determine if he was fit for the jab.

I had already made an appointment with Charlotte‘s mommy to bring Charlotte in on the same day too, so that Ethan and Charlotte could share the dosage of the JE vaccine. Unfortunately when we brought Ethan to the clinic in the evening, he also had a slight fever of 37.6°C, so the doctor advised us to postpone the JE jab. 🙁

Doctor Jessica diagnosed Ethan’s eye infection as an early stage of conjunctivitis. Thankfully though, the whites of his eyes were not red yet. She prescribed Fucithalmic, a antibiotic fucidic acid eye ointment to be dropped into Ethan’s eyes twice a day. He also had a dry cough, so she prescribed cough mixture too, this time, a sweeter one compared to Rhinatiol, named MucoFlux.

SIGH… back to grind of medicine-feeding again. 🙁

This morning, after 2 applications of the eye ointment, the condition of his eyes has improved…. I’m praying Ethan will be completely healed as soon as possible. I can’t wait to see the sparkle and glow back in his eyes!

On the bright side though, I forgot to mention that as of yesterday’s visit to the doctor, Ethan’s weight has reached the 10-kilo mark!  WOoHOoOoOooooo!!!!


Scrap papers & elements from Lindsay Jane Designs

Ethan’s First Movie

August 22, 2007 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up | 9 comments

Remember the studio photos Ethan took some time back? Yeah, the one that came with the beautifully framed photo…. Well, Mommy the procrastinator has been dilly dallying about making a short movie/presentation using all those adorable photos. Unfortunately nothing materialized thus far… up until last week! I requested Ethan’s Ah Koo (my brother Allan) to make a short movie from those photos in his spare time, because I had seen some of his work and I was impressed with them.

And would you know it, a few days later, he produced the following masterpiece. Awesome or not?

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