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How we survived the flight

October 25, 2008 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting, Vacation | 3 comments

Even now when we are more or less settled in the States, I still sometimes think about how Pete and I managed to travel that long-haul journey with Ethan, all the way from Malaysia.  Some planning came into play way before we boarded the aircraft, and although some of our plans worked out, some did not, and we had to be flexible enough to change and adapt accordingly.

Here are some of the things we took into consideration:

  • Travel as light as possible.  Each of us checked in one piece of luggage, and we brought only ONE carry-on luggage.  Pete and I also had our laptops with us, but thankfully, those could be slung over our backs.  The idea here was to have as many hands free as possible, so we could take care of Ethan.

 

  • We packed a few entertainment stuff for Ethan too, among others a brand new doodle pad.   It’s just a tiny one, something he could do to amuse himself.  I also had a sticker book in the bag, and that was a lifesaver.  He played with the stickers right before we boarded the flight to Hong Kong, and the book followed us all the way to the States!

The greatest challenge we faced in the aircraft was when it was time to buckle up.  Sometimes Ethan would cooperate, but most of the time, he preferred to be unbuckled.  So especially during takeoffs and landings, when we absolutely needed to put on the seat belt, Pete pulled out the most “imaginative weapon” ever.  Knowing how much Ethan loves to play with cards, Pete brought out his wallet, and Ethan had fun taking out and putting the cards back in.  That kept him safe and secure all through takeoffs and landings.

We wanted to rely on the toys given by SIA to toddlers for entertaining Ethan, but unfortunately, they weren’t much to shout about.  Well, he did get himself a toy watch, placemat and stickers, deck of cards and a lanyard, but that was about it.

Let’s hope the return journey in a few months’ time would be an improvement, what with us travelling with a baby too!

Ethan at 32 months

October 24, 2008 in Ethan, Milestones | 1 comment


Scrap Credits
Beautifall add-on kit from Scrapmuss Designs
Sweet Dreams alphas from A work in progress
Alpha matching RAIC from Amy Sumrall
Doodle Me Big doodles from Mikkel Paige Original
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Elegant word art (illegal cute) from Bethany

Weight

About 12 kilos.

Height

88cm.  According to Dr Jessica, he is rather tall for his age.

Teeth

18.

Developmental Milestones

  • Can finally JUMP.  It happened one day during one of his parent-toddler class sessions.  He climbed on the trampoline and, while holding Pete’s hands, jumped up and down.  And now he is slowly but surely jumping around more confidently.  In fact, he can hop, skip and jump all over our apartment now!
  • Becoming more and more sociable and less shy when meeting strangers.  Less time is needed for him to “warm up” now.
  • He has also developed many different new facial expressions, one of my favorites being his cheeky giggle, where he giggles when he is tickled by something funny and he purposely moves his jaw up and down.  Another priceless expression is when he scrunches up his face in a cheeky grin when we ask him to SMILE!
  • He can finally address Daddy and Mommy CONSISTENTLY.  His “Daddy” is very very clear, but his “Mommy” is well…..slightly off-key.  Will reveal what he says later.
  • Our boy is one tough little man.  At his recent 3rd and final jab for his JE vaccination, he didn’t cry one bit when Dr Jessica gave the injection.  He sat quietly and protested at first, but when we told him it would only be a little while, and asked him to be a good boy, he cooperated.

Food and Feeding

Ethan is eating more now, but he still prefers his favorite rice and gravy.  He has kinda lost interest in eating spaghetti and noodles though.  I hope that he will start to eat more meat and vegetables soon.

N.B. Due to my tardiness, I might have left out a few milestones, but I will add them into the upcoming 33 months’ update soon.

Adapting to life in the US of A

October 23, 2008 in Ethan, Growing Up | 8 comments

One of our primary concerns when we relocated to the States was how Ethan would adapt to the change.  For one thing, Ethan is a very fussy eater, and we were worried if he would be able to accept the food here.  So we tried our best to make the transition as smooth sailing as possible. With the safe arrival of our FedEx food shipment, we were definitely relieved, because I could now cook dishes Ethan would enjoy, like tau-ewe-bak, chicken serai and claypot chicken rice.  However, my objective is still to have Ethan try out and love a variety of many other different foods. To make him more comfy in his new environment also, we brought along a little present for him from Malaysia.  And the morning after we arrived, I took it out and asked him to unwrap it.  Knowing how much he adores alphabets and numbers, we got him a set of colorful wooden blocks.  I tell you, just seeing his face light up with excitement was enough to make my day.

 

Well unfortunately, a few days later, he started throwing these blocks around the apartment.  I gave him a warning that I would take them away from him, but when he kept on throwing them, I stored the blocks away one day while he was asleep.  Looks like he doesn’t even miss them though. SIGH.

In the span of the past few weeks that we have been here, we have seen Ethan grow in leaps and bounds.  Not only has he become more sociable and vocal (and stubborn), he seems to have become more independent too.  For one thing, he loves to take his bath, and I attribute this to the bath tubs.  Oh, we got him some colorful foam alphabets and numbers to while his time away in the tub. Hehe.

 

And the first weekend we were here, we had a barbecue gathering by a nearby apartment poolside.  Ethan would only eat raisins and chips though, but he sure made a lot of new friends.

 

It definitely looks like our fears of Ethan having trouble adapting to life in the States are unfounded, because not only has he proven he’s a tough guy, he’s very resilient too.  In fact, when the weather’s chilly, Pete and I are feeling really cold, I feel Ethan’s hands and feet and he’s warm and cosy.

That’s my little man right there…  these pictures were taken a few days ago when we were out having a snack at In-N-Out.  The first picture was taken before the food came:

 

See how grouchy he looks?

And this second one is taken after the meal.  Ethan only had (a lot of) fries, but here’s his look of satisfaction as he enjoys his pink lemonade drink:

 

Trip to home away from home

October 21, 2008 in Ethan, Milestones, Vacation | 4 comments

When Pete and I found out that we were gonna relocate to the States for several months, we were excited about the opportunity presented to us as a family, and most of all, we were ecstatic about the grand experience Ethan was gonna get.

One thing that *kinda* worried us was how Ethan was gonna handle the long 16-17 hours’ flight.  If he decides not to sleep, we are really done for.  So we prayed for the best 🙂

The flight to Changi was okay, and as expected Ethan was all smiles (and energy) as soon as we landed in Changi airport.  We had a transit time of about 5 hours there, so we took our time exploring the airport, making a few pit stops for Ethan to play in the various play areas strewn across the airport.

 

I must say that I am extremely proud of my little boy for he was able to let me know when he wanted to poo, and I would then bring him to the toilet 🙂

…although it WAS a challenge to pull him away from the play areas…

 

There were plenty of other attractions at Changi airport too, and Ethan really enjoyed himself looking at the koi ponds…

 

…and a Butterfly Garden too! 

 

Our flight was from Singapore to San Francisco, but we had a short stopover for refueling in Hong Kong.  And right before we boarded our flight from Singapore, our little boy fell asleep, all the way till we boarded and took off, and he only woke up in time for his meal.

In Hong Kong, while having our one-hour stopover, we had to coax Ethan to drink his milk, but all our energizer bunny wanted to do was to run on travellators.  Of course, in the course of coaxing, he threw his tantrums, but thankfully, right before we reboarded the aircraft, he decided to finish his milk.

 

Well, the HK-SFO connection was the really long one which we were worried about.  But our prayers were answered, as Ethan fell asleep a little after we boarded and slept through for about 9 hours straight.  For Ethan, the economy class seat was like business class, but for us, it was CRAMPED.  We tried to request for the front-most seats with more leg room, but we only managed to get the one in the second row.  It didn’t help that the person in front of Pete and me lowered their seats slightly, and throughout the night, it was either Ethan’s head on my lap and his feet on Pete’s lap, or the other way round.  We learnt new forms of contortionism, I tell ya.

Ethan woke up just in time for his meal right before we landed, but unfortunately he would not take much of it…only the fruit yogurt appealed to him.

But we landed, made it through immigration, collected our luggage and headed for our apartment.  We had takeout *dinner* at midnight-ish, and then Ethan went totally excited with the new apartment, complete with TWO bathtubs!  He played around, and only fell asleep at about 3:30a.m.  In fact, we were rather worried we would get complaints from our neighbors downstairs, what with the jumping and hopping around.

And so our adventure has begun….. 🙂

Snippets of our KL trip

October 1, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Vacation | 9 comments

We made a short trip to KL recently to attend our US Visa interview at the US Embassy, and also to meet up with our siblings.  We’ve explained to Ethan now and again that soon we will all be flying off on a plane to the States (I put in some sound effects for “plane”, which he likes), but we are not sure if he understands where exactly we are going, or even how long “a few months” really is.

Anyway, the Visa interview went well.  Ethan was allowed into the embassy with us, and he entertained himself by counting aloud the numbers as they were called, amusing all the Visa applicants there.

After getting our Visas approved, we headed for lunch:

Saisaki is located right behind Crowne Plaza Mutiara KL, the hotel where we were staying, so it was very convenient for us to get there.  Ethan was very hungry, as were we, and he walloped more than one bowl of rice and chawan mushi all on his own.

While Daddy and Mommy enjoyed the sashimi, steamed cod fish head and even MORE sashimi, Ethan continued with ice cream and (later) blackcurrant juice.

Look how red his lips became after the dose of blackcurrant juice…

…and how hyper he became after all that sugar intake:

Our hotel was very strategically located, as it was only a stone’s throw away from Pavilion KL, so we hung out there too.  Here’s Ethan enjoying himself playing with toys at ELC:

It was a very fruitful trip indeed and I am very proud of Ethan boy for being so well-behaved throughout the trip.

 

Our next long-haul flight journey awaits… 🙂

The hotels, the tubs and all the fun

October 1, 2008 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 2 comments

Ethan simply loves being in a hotel.  Whenever we bring him on hotel stays, we can tell he really has the time of his life!

In the recent weeks, we have had the chance of staying in a few different hotels.  When we checked into the E&O recently, Ethan immediately made himself at home in the room.

He loved playing with the oranges they provided, and asking us to turn on the TV for him, switching channels here and there, but most of all, he adored the bath tub.

He would keep saying “Tub! tub!”, and it wasn’t long before he figured out how to climb into the tub on his own.  There was no trouble at all getting him to take his bath.  At home, we sometimes need to chase him around the house to get him to take a shower, but here in the hotel (with a bathtub), he will willingly undress and climb in.

After his bath, and his nightcap, he still would not sleep, but instead chose to climb onto a chair and “see” outside the window.  It was raining cats and dogs that night, and Ethan was truly intrigued.  He especially like the “fan”-shaped tree, which could be clearly visible from our window.

 

So when we were in KL a few days ago, and we stayed in Crowne Plaza Mutiara KL, where the room had a tub, we knew our boy would be really excited! 

And he was 🙂

Bubbles everywhere!!!  He even tricked Pete by calling “Daddy! Daddy!” and when Daddy came to see him in the tub, he splashed bubbles and foam all over his Daddy.  Cheeky lil fella.  I wonder if he remembers his very first trip in this same hotel about a year back…

He is becoming quite the pro at using the bathtub now and he really makes full use of the tub by lying down and enjoying the bubbles, and then flipping over and kicking the water with his feet, as if he was swimming.  Then he would make waves with his arms and stomp around the tub while screaming in delight.

We think Ethan will really love it in the States, where our apartment comes with TWO bathtubs.  Well…we’ll see then, won’t we? 🙂

Ethan at 31 months

September 20, 2008 in Ethan, Milestones | 7 comments


Scrap Credits
Spontaneous Delight kit from Carrie Stephens Designs
Basic chipboard alphas from Dani Mogstad

I’m gonna use the dependable adage here and say “Better late than never”. GASP! I am close to three weeks late in posting a monthly report on Ethan’s developmental milestones.  Been a really busy month for all of us, and you’ll soon know why, but I tell myself that I still need to do this update. 🙂

Weight

12 kilos, according to the weighing scale at home.

Height

Did not measure recently, but he does seem to have S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D.

Teeth

18 in total, and very sharp too, I might add.  According to his mood, Ethan will sometimes brush his teeth, but sometimes he will refuse.  He won’t want to put toothpaste in his mouth though.  My dentist told me that cleaning a toddler’s teeth is important, especially the molars, and she advised me that using a wash cloth wrapped around a finger would be effective enough.  So I have been using the sherpa backing of the cloth wipes I have to clean Ethan’s teeth.  Quite a struggle, sometimes, but it does result in more than satisfactory results 🙂 (and not to mention, often a bruised finger or two).

Developmental Milestones

  • Attempting to “read”, I think.  So far, Ethan knows almost all his alphabets (both lowercase and uppercase), but we have noticed that sometimes when he sees a combination of some letters, he will try to pronounce them like what he thinks they would sound like.  For example, when he sees the word “HBO”, he will say “bo”, referring to the last two letters, or he will say “wa” when he sees the letters “WA”.  “Star Movies” is “Star-vees” to him 🙂
  • Faster at picking up words he hears.  He will say “phone, phone!” when he wants to play with my cellphone, or he will say “book!” when he wants his book.  When he wants to put toothpaste on his toothbrush, he will say “paste! paste!” and just this morning, after he saw Pete brushing his teeth, Ethan asked me for “brush, brush!”
  • Beginning to show preference.  Besides voicing his opinions sometimes by firmly stating “Mai!” (“no” in Hokkien), while kicking and throwing a tantrum, he sometimes requests for who he wants to give him his shower.  There have been several times when I was ready to give him his nightly shower and he adamantly called out, “Daddy!  Daddy!  Daddy!”, and when Pete answered, Ethan pulled his Daddy into the shower stall 😛
  • Loves playing “horse” with Daddy.  Ethan will run towards Daddy, pull him to the ground, and saying “horse!”.  Ethan can now expertly climb onto Daddy’s back and well…ride the “horse”.  (Horsy has got impressive sound effects too, I might add).

Other Highlights

We’ve been preparing him to welcome his new sibling in a few months’ time, but in the recent weeks, we’ve noticed that he’s been acting rather “big brotherly” like.  There was a time when he pointed at my tummy and said “baby!”, and nowadays when I ask him to “sayang baby”, he will gently stroke my belly.  Sometimes la.

Food and Feeding

Ironically, he has been requesting for me to feed him instead of him eating on his own.  Could this dependence be caused by the “knowledge” that he will soon be a big brother?

Bungalow

September 16, 2008 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 9 comments

Ethan got himself a bungalow last Saturday.  Make that “bungalow”…in inverted commas.

It was “presented” to him during his playschool session as he was having his snacks.  He was happily munching away on his biscuits and then he apparently turn around to look at me, lost his balance somehow and fell down from the bench.  Normally he would be able to break his fall with his hands, but since his hands were full (holding the biscuits), he hit his forehead on the ground, earning him a gigantic bump on the left side of his forehead. 🙁

We were SHOCKED.  As was Ethan, because he didn’t immediately cry, but only after a while did he wail out loud.  We tried to put an ice pack on the bump, but Ethan would not allow it to be there for long.  After a few minutes of on-and-off ice packs, the bump subsided a little.

He looked his normal self, and was smiling away a while later.  In fact, if I may say so myself, it certainly does appear that he has become more active (and mischievous) after the fall, believe it or not.

Here’s a sneak on what the bump looked like in the evening:

I took this picture right after THE MATCH.  The TV in the background shows the logo of Liverpool: we beat Man U 2-1!!!  Woohooo!!!  Sorry, couldn’t resist that 😛

Weekend with Gramps

September 16, 2008 in Celebrations, Ethan | 2 comments

Grandparents’ Day this year falls on September 7, so we decided to make a trip back to Ipoh and Taiping, so that Ethan’s grandparents can dote on him.  And boy, did he enjoy himself!

We noticed that Ethan is becoming more and more at ease with his grandparents now, and it didn’t take him too long to get comfy; snuggling up with Kong Kong in Ipoh, sitting on the swing with Ah Mah in Taiping.  Of course, the grandpas and grandmas were thrilled to no end when Ethan started reciting his alphabets and numbers confidently too!

Ah Ma from Ipoh even presented Ethan with a little new toy: a fish lantern that moves about on the floor singing the song “Row row row your boat, gently down the stream…merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream” incessantly.  We took it back home to Penang with us, and it puts a smile on Ethan’s face whenever he plays with it.

I think the battery will run out soon.

We went to The Botanical Gardens!

September 10, 2008 in Ethan, Exercise | 9 comments

Each week, like any normal human being, we count the days leading to the weekend, just so we can take a well-deserved break from work, and spend some nice family time with each other.  Ethan senses it is the weekend too, I’m sure.  He always seems happier when we pick him up on Friday evenings 🙂

And what’s better than the weekend?  Why, a 3-day weekend of course!  Which was what we had a couple of weeks back due to Merdeka Day falling on a Sunday.  Monday was automatically a holiday for us too, so in addition to our blissful afternoon naps together (which I look forward to each weekend, by the way), Sunday night didn’t seem so forlorn after all, since we also had Monday to look forward to.

That particular Monday morning, Pete and I planned to take Ethan for our long-procrastinated morning walk at The Botanical Gardens.  It had been ages since we took him there, so I was very determined to make our plan come into fruition.

So on Monday morning, I hauled myself out of bed, tired and weary, but the thought of Ethan’s happy face when he gets to go one on one with nature spurred and inspired me.  I dragged Pete out of bed too, and hurried to get ready.  By the time we reached Botanical Gardens, it was already 9:15a.m. but still not too hot, and there were still plenty of people around.

At first Ethan didn’t want to get down and asked to be carried instead, but as soon as he spotted people jogging past him, he made a lurch for the ground, and started running too, giggling happily and stopping now and then to point out, “Bird!”, “Tree!”, etc.

I managed to capture a video of our little runner too, but it was from the back.  See, he was running so fast, that I couldn’t get my phone out quick enough to run in front of him and get him running from the front. LOL.

All in all, we made two rounds round Botanical Gardens; one small round for starters, and a second larger round.  The larger round involved climbing up a steep incline, the one leading to the hiking trail Pete and I used to explore frequently many moons ago.

During the second round round the Botanical Gardens, Ethan would sometimes ask to be carried, and Pete said he heard him panting a little too.  So our little boy is also smart enough to save his energy and knows how to rest when he is tired too!

We made a few pit stops at some rest areas, to enjoy the scenery and surroundings too.

And at the end of our morning exercise, look at the little one replenishing his body with some thirst-quenching H20. 🙂

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