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Ethan is a natural with numbers. He picked up counting on his own, without our prodding or pushing. He can count to a hundred very well now, but I was totally surprised when he started counting in Chinese one day when I was out with him.
He is exposed to both English and Mandarin in school, as he has two teachers: one for English and one for Mandarin. And so by the by, he has also managed to pick up counting in Mandarin too, although to us, it sounds rather *slangy”, if you know what I mean… 🙂
Scrap Credits
Colchique dans les prés QP from Studio Soval Scrapbook Graphics
Giving Thanks Alphas from Stacey’s Scraps
Weight
Did not measure but should be close to 10 kilos now.
Height/Length
Getting taller and taller!
Teeth
2 bottom incisors, and we can see the *whites* of 2 more at the top! She is a perfect candidate to sing the song, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!”
Motor Skills
Communication and Social Skills
Food and Feeding
She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is taking a little bit of solids too. New foods she has been introduced to include:
Last Saturday, we had some friends visiting from KL, and for want of something different and intriguing for the kids, we decided to meet at the Esplanade field for a kite-flying session in the morning.
Now, it has been ages since I last flew a kite, but I knew the feeling was out-of-this-world. And I knew that it would be something that Ethan wouldn’t wanna miss.
There….look at the kites…Ethan flew the one on the left. He’d borrowed the kite from Uncle Kin Hoon.
Of course, Daddy had to release it into the air and allow the kite to take flight first.
Ethan was chasing Daddy all around the field, going, “I wanna fly the kite, Daddy!” And so, when the kite was flying nice and high, Daddy passed it to Ethan to fly.
Check out that look of intense concentration. 🙂
..and a turnaround pose for Mommy to take a picture.
Ethan had so much fun! …and he also got a tan! LOL
We walked over to Fort Cornwallis after that. We had never been inside, despite being residents of Penang for so long.
Here we are, posing by the statue of Sir Francis Light.
…and Ethan *reading* something, also showing off his newly-acquired tan and rosy cheeks.
And the *compulsory* pose with the canon.
And finally, my attempt at getting a rather nice shot of the wall and canons:
We put up our Christmas tree last week. And guess who had the honor of putting the Christmas star at the tree top?
Easy does it….easy easy….slowly, THERE!
Finally, just slightly after 9 months, she uttered the word that has the ability to wrap me around her little adorable fingers.
Last night, Hannah awoke, let out a “come carry me” cry, stood up in her cot, faced me and said, “Mameh….!”
She’s currently under the tutelage of her big brother to perfect the pronunciation, and from the looks of it, it will certainly be “Mommy” really soon.
…can we say that that’s officially her first word? 🙂
Ethan is a very friendly and sociable guy. Only catch is that he tends to get REALLY shy amongst strangers or even familiar faces in a new surrounding. It takes him some time to warm up and then he’ll be his usual boisterous self.
Just like a couple of weekends ago when we attended his classmate Griffin’s birthday party. Ethan was all excited in the morning of the event, because it was a pirate-themed party. He read aloud the words on the gift too, he said, ” Happy Birthday Griffin. From TWO Ethan!” (the 2 dots were read as *two*)
But as soon as we stepped into Griffin’s home, Ethan clung on to me like a leech and didn’t want to join in the games at all, even though several of his friends were there.
By the by, he warmed up and soon he was running around happily and playing with the birthday boy and his other friends too.
More smiles could be seen as time went by. He even posed happily in front of the pirate ship backdrop 🙂
…and he found some *treasures* to play with too!
Can you tell just how much he is enjoying himself? LOL
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, he downed two sausages by himself.
…and a LOT of yummy chocolate birthday cake!
After that, he went home with his very own mini treasure chest which contained goodies, among them a really COOL telescope.
Is it any wonder he told me, “Mommy, I LIKE Griffin’s house!” 🙂
It’s been long overdue but it’s finally here. Last week, I prepared porridge for Hannah, just like I did for Ethan previously. I used organic red rice, washed it and oven-dried it. (I guess I chose red rice because it is not so starchy)
Then I ground the rice in a dry mill till the consistency is that of a powder form.
I used just one or two teaspoons to cook the porridge and the remainder of the powdered red rice is stored in an airtight container for future use.
Hannah’s porridge has yummy stuff in it too. For her first time, I chose familiar tastes like carrots and potatoes.
Steamed and pureed carrots, and steamed and fork-mashed potatoes, that is. I usually prepare them in bulk and freeze the rest in ice cube trays, like so:
This way, it makes it easier on subsequent days when I cook her porridge.
I mix the powdered rice with some hot boiled water, throw in the food cubes and put this mixture in a small claypot. I put this claypot in a water bath in the slow cooker and let it cook.
Sure seems like a lot of trouble cooking some porridge, but it’s truly worth it when the *customer* smiles eagerly when the dinner tray is placed in front of her, and happily eats the porridge cooked with love.
Sometimes she tries to grab the spoon and feed herself too!
Today marks the last day of the schooling year for Ethan. I can’t believe that it’s been 3 months since he started school. Feels just like yesterday that I was bringing a clingy toddler to class, and now, I’m glad to see that he is happy to go to school every day.
It certainly makes it easier when I see him ask to “wear his bag” and run eagerly to his class. He’ll say bye to me, and when I pick him up, he’ll exclaim, “Mommy!” as he runs to hug me.
He’ll tell me all about his day in school, who he played with, what he did, and sometimes he would proudly bring back and show me the art and craftwork he has done.
It makes me proud too that he has made many new friends in school. In fact, when I show him a picture of his classmates, he can remember ALL of their names!
His grasp of the alphabet and phonics has also increased tremendously, and even though he was only introduced to the Letterland characters in August (when teacher was teaching M), he can remember all of them now. I was really amazed, and still am.
He has also surprised me when he started counting in Mandarin! His school employs a dual-language approach, and although he sometimes looks a little bit confused when the teacher speaks in Mandarin, I’ve caught him singing in Mandarin too! And sometimes, he tells me he learns “Chinese” 😛
Of course, he’s also had his share of fun in school. From birthday celebrations, to bringing goodie bags back from school, to special events, Ethan certainly enjoys it.
His class had a little Halloween class celebration not too long ago, where the kids had a fun activity to paint a *ghost* made from dough.
Ethan is a very *work-proud* boy and when he brought his YELLOW ghost back home, he could not stop showing it around.
And of course, nothing beats that smile on his face when we praise him sky high for his beautifully painted yellow ghost! 🙂
So school ended with a blast, or rather a SPLASH, today as the kids all had a great time playing in the giant rubber pool in the school compound.
On the way back from school today, Ethan told me, “I had so much fun in school today Mommy!”
I’ve no doubt you did, sweetie… 🙂
Maybe it’s because we kiss Hannah all the time…how can we not when she flashes that adorable smile, with the almost-there dimple on her chubby cheeks? Yeah, it has to be because we are incredibly affectionate with her, so much so that the affection we shower on her has made her affectionate too.
When I carry Hannah, she would hug me tight, sometimes using both hands to hold my head or my face, and attempt to kiss or chomp on my cheek or chin. A similar trait that was exhibited by Ethan last time.
Last weekend when we visited Ethan and Hannah’s cousin Phoebe, Hannah was all affectionate again. Crawling over to stroke Phoebe’s head, attempting to hug and kiss her…maybe Hannah thought Phoebe was a big soft toy for her to play with!
She’s also very loving and affectionate towards Ethan, but Ethan will run away from Hannah whenever Hannah comes a-crawling. He’ll shout, “Hannah’s coming!” and run very quickly away.
How can we ever resist affection from our little sweet Hannah? 🙂
Bingo! The winning combination of rice cereal + EBM + pureed carrot + pureed potato makes Hannah ask for more! 🙂