Bible Verse of the Day

Sleepy bleepy

January 25, 2008 in Ethan, Sleep | 4 comments


Scrap Credits
Clarity Kit freebie from MyAngel236
Doodles: Doodle Me Big from Mikkel Paige Originals
Blue painted newspaper alphas from Manda J Designs 

Ethan’s sleeping and bed habits:

  • Light sleeper – will wake up at the slightest sound.
  • Experiences deep sleep in the early mornings.  Sometimes I can even change his diaper without him waking up.
  • When he wakes up at night, the first thing he will do is cry.  When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he usually does is SMILE.
  • Loves to play under the quilt covers – he will lie very very still when he is under the covers and then reveal himself to you all of a sudden.
  • Loves to climb onto our bedside platform, lifts his hands up as if in jubilation to say “Look, Mommy!  No hands!”
  • Needs to be either lulled to sleep by being carried or breastfed (working on the weaning part).
  • Still wakes up about once or twice in the night for comfort suckling.
  • Sometimes talks and giggles in his sleep.
  • Kicks a lot when he sleeps.  Able to rotate whole body all around the bed.
  • Sleeps in various positions, one of his favorites being the “crouching position”, i.e. butt high up and face tilted a little to the side.  Sometimes he sleeps in the coma/recovery position too.
  • Doesn’t like pillows, and still sleeps without.
  • Doesn’t like blankets, quilts and comforters too, preferring to sleep *exposed*.
  • Sometimes he wakes up and will fall back to sleep again when we put him on our bed.  However, he will need to snuggle and hug me really tight like a bolster first.  One hand will be around my neck or torso, and one leg around my waist.
  • When he wakes up before Daddy and Mommy are asleep and I don’t come and hold him as soon as he would like me to, he will cry and wail loudly, as if someone is abusing him.

But he does sleep like an angel, doesn’t he?

Daily exercise regime

January 22, 2008 in Ethan, Exercise | 7 comments


Scrap Credits
Kit Jules from Kawouette
Doodles: Doodle Me Big from Mikkel Paige Originals
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels

It all began one fine Sunday about two weeks ago. After a yummy homecooked dinner, Daddy decided to take Ethan downstairs for an evening walk round out apartment compound. It was a great idea because then Mommy could have some time to wash up and have a quick shower undisturbed.

The bonding session between Daddy and Ethan went really well indeed. When they got back, Daddy reported that Ethan happily ran two rounds round the swimming pool, giggled happily when he saw a doggie playing and had good fun during the evening walk.

Ever since that day, whenever we get back home to our apartment and reach our apartment lobby area, Ethan would eagerly run towards the poolside. He would lead me down the steps to the pool and joyfully run around the pool. He loves to walk on the drain gutter covers though, and he would sometimes stop and smile as he looked at the water in the pool. Last Sunday evening, he decided that in addition to walking around both the adult and children’s pool, he wanted to go across the little bridge too!

It sure appears that Ethan does not only love swimming in the pool, he loves walking round it too. And to think this all happened with a innocent evening walk 🙂

Curtain Lover

January 21, 2008 in Ethan, Funny Moments | 10 comments


Scrap Credits
Ilétait une foi kit from Petit Moineaux
Stamp cluster 7 from Lindsay Jane Designs
Basic chipboard alphas from Dani Mogstad
Boxed words from Chantal

The curtains have long since enthralled Ethan. And I found out that there are also some other kids that love playing with the curtains too. Ethan loves to hide behind the curtains, stay very still and play a little game with me. When I notice him hiding behind the curtain, I would say, “Where is Ethan?” and pretend to look around for him. He used to giggle as soon as I say this, hence revealing where he was hiding. But now, when he hides, he stays completely still until I ask out loud where he is. Then he would yank the curtain away from his face, and grin happily, as I exclaim, “There you are!”

A few weeks back, when we had the power outage on a Saturday, I opened our living room window a little to allow the air in for ventilation. Ethan got fascinated by the curtains billowing in the wind, so much so that he climbed onto the sofa and stood there looking out from the window onto our balcony. At the same time, he again played with the curtain too… and when I pointed the camera at him and said, “Ethan, smile!”, he never fails to give me that cheeky cheeky grin!

I Love Rock N’ Roll

January 17, 2008 in Entertainment, Ethan, Funny Moments | 9 comments

Yesterday evening, as Ethan and I were hanging out at home while Daddy had his futsal game, we watched American Idol. It was the first episode of the season and the program showed people attending the auditions in Philadelphia. All of a sudden, the show played the song “I Love Rock n’ Roll” – you know the song that was made popular by Joan Jett? As soon as Ethan heard the song play, he gave me a big grin, stood up and began *dancing*… he turned round and round on the floor and kicked and tapped his legs to the rhythm. And he even did all this while holding on to his Yakult bottle. Of course I spurred him on by singing the song and dancing too! Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that I only managed to capture the last bit of his dance, which was energetic but not as much as the part which was not captured on video. Apparently his love for this song is not a fluke because he was dancing again to it when they repeated the American Idol episode later that night and also when I hummed the tune to him this morning.

Everybody sing together now:
“I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby!”

We all love Japanese food!

January 16, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 9 comments

Last Saturday, just as I was about to start cooking, an electricity outage happened. I thought the electricity would come back on after 30 minutes, but when it was already noon and there was still no sign of it, we decided to go out for lunch instead. A few days ago, while chatting with Hooi Ling, she recommended a Japanese restaurant in town on Chow Thye Rd named Isaribi. And since we have not had Japanese food as a family for a long time now, we headed that way.

The place was not hard to find and the entrance looked very calm and serene, what with the lush greenery in the porch area. We ordered the king sashimi set (which was not as king-sized as we imagined :P), the semi-grilled beef slices (awesome flavor, taken with chopped ginger and some unidentifiable sauce), and of course, chawan mushi for Ethan. They only had prawn and unagi chawan mushi though, and it costs RM10 per bowl! Took them mighty long to serve the chawan mushi as well… we thought it would be spectacularly good, but it was rather bland. Nevertheless, Ethan gulped down the chawan mushi and even pinched a bit of the shredded carrot and radish from the sashimi set. Oh and because it took them so long to serve our food, Ethan boy got impatient and decided to roam and explore the restaurant instead.

When we were done with our sets, either the servings were not big enough or we were immensely hungry that day, for we decided to order a salmon skin temaki, ebikko (fish roe) and as an after-thought, the cold soba too. The salmon skin roll was one the best we had ever tasted: crunchy and ohsogood with wasabi. And when Ethan saw the soba, he demanded to have some too, which was a surprise to me because I hadn’t expected him to like it. He really enjoyed eating each and every strand, slurping away like a pro! Didn’t manage to take a picture of him doing that because just as I was ready to snap a photo, we were served some fruits and Ethan decided he would like to have those instead. In the end, he gobbled down a piece of honeydew all on his own.

All in all, a good healthy Japanese lunch, but only if you have all the time in the world to spare… know what I mean?

He loves pineapple tarts…

January 15, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 6 comments

… just like me!

I am an ardent fan of pineapple tarts and it is one of the few things I really look forward to each time Chinese New Year comes around. Anyway, here’s the first batch of pineapple tarts I ordered to try.

It was just 24 pieces and I foresee it will be long gone before Chinese New Year gets here anyway. It has been a long while since I have seen pineapple tarts made this way (most of them are pineapple rolls now), so I was eager to see if they tasted good. Well, they were all right, but not blow-me-over-the-top good. Let’s just say I have tasted better. Anyway, Ethan loves them! He has a peculiar way of eating the tarts though. He will guide me to the table where I put the box of tarts, and throw my hand towards the box (duh). I have to hold the tart and feed him because it crumbles easily and I don’t want to risk having ants all over the floor. However, Ethan will only eat the crust, biting off a little at a time. I gave him a bit of the sweet pineapple jam filling and he spat it all out. Peculiar or not?

We are going to order two tins of yummy pineapple rolls soon, and these are guaranteed yummilicious good – we order them every year. Let’s see how Ethan reacts to them. I am curious to find out how he will pick the crust out from those.

Poke poke tickle tickle!

January 14, 2008 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Funny Moments | 7 comments

Well, I guess I am gonna hit the 2-year mark for breastfeeding Ethan now, since it will only be a matter of days before Ethan hits 2. It seems like just yesterday that I was struggling with milk supply and here I am, proud to say that I have far exceeded my expectations 🙂 Weaning is still a battle we both have to overcome though, but I know this is a phase we must go through together, whether we like it or not.

One of Ethan’s unique habits while breastfeeding is to put his index finger into my belly button. I have no idea why he does this, neither do I know when this started. It’s almost like a belly button fetish, really. Most of the time, he will just let his finger rest in my belly button but sometimes, he will move his finger a little. Well, that tickles…definitely! So I will tell him to stop and gently take his hand away. But still he will keep doing it. Lately, I have started to sometimes give him a dose of tit for tat. He puts his finger in my belly button, I put my finger in his. Good plan, eh? Surprisingly though, he is not as ticklish as me. So we’re back to square one. Well, there goes my plan 😛

Time for a shower!

January 8, 2008 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 9 comments

 

Ethan now prefers Mommy to give him his shower. Only when I am nowhere to be seen does he allow Daddy to shower for him. Sometimes when Pete attempts to give him a shower, he will vehemently push Pete OUT of the shower stall and ask for Mommy instead. I use the following shower ritual when I bathe Ethan.

“Ethan, come take your shower!”
Saying “Hands up!” will prompt Ethan to raise his arms high in the air so that I can remove his shirt. Then I say “Pants down!” followed by “Diaper off!”

1. With the use of the shower nozzle, wet his head and body.  Sometimes he would run and hide behind me in an attempt to escape the shower, but this does not happen often.
2. Apply Baby Sebamed on the face and shampoo on the head.
3. Shower to rinse off (thrice) soap suds.  Ethan will brush the water off his face vigorously while blowing loudly with his mouth.
4. Apply Baby Sebamed on entire body, lift one foot to wash the soles and then the other. 
5. Rinse off suds.  At times, Ethan will raise one leg at a time and rinse off the soap on his own with the running tap water.
6. Allow Ethan to play with tap water for a few minutes.  This is his favorite part of the session.  I normally end up wet all over, because our boy loves to splash the water everywhere.  And he loves turning the tap on and off; when it is on, it is normally at full blast.
7. Dry up and wrap up with towel.
8. Lift Ethan high enough for him to *turn off* the shower and *turn down the temperature* on the shower.
9. Give Ethan his tootbrush with a glass of tap water. Ethan loves to dip his toothbrush into the water repeatedly. Lately I am pleased to note that he loves to *brush* his teeth with the toothbrush. Well, not brush…but more like bite and suck on the bristles. Well, it’s good progress I would say.  Better than nothing la.
10. Change into pajamas or going out clothes.

Last night after he finished his shower, he didn’t even bother waiting for me to wrap him up and carry him out of the bathroom, as is our usual routine. Our boy independently walked out of the shower stall, climbed a step up and out of the bathroom and pranced around in his birthday suit in the living room!

On his knees

January 8, 2008 in Ethan, Growing Up | 2 comments

 

Ethan’s latest *stunt* is to move around on his knees.  Sometimes when he is rolling around on the bed, playing, he will get up on his knees and make his way around the bed.  He tried doing it on our wooden floor too, but because of its hard surface, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why he prefers the bed.

Looks like there is no stopping him being an active little inquisitive boy, huh?

You, me … dinner … tonight?

January 5, 2008 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Parenting | 12 comments


Scrap Credits
Wild Flower Holiday Quickpage from Gina Huff
Rough & Tumble Add On elements & alphas from Flergs

A few months ago when I called my girlfriend Audrey, she told me that every Saturday her almost-4-year-old daughter and her indulged in a mother-and-daughter bonding session.  They would go to a nearby mall in the morning, do some grocery shopping, and then have lunch together.  When I told Pete about this, I expressed how I longed for a similar experience with Ethan… well, that experience might not be too far off…

Yesterday evening, Pete had dinner plans with his colleagues.  So I had two options: one was to have dinner myself first and then pick Ethan up from the sitter’s, or two: to pick him up and hop on over to Queensbay Mall for dinner, per our usual Friday routine. 

I opted for the latter.

I was working from home yesterday, so I left our house around 6:15p.m. for Mrs Tan’s place.  Ethan was very excited to see me, even to the extent of refusing to allow Mrs Tan to carry him to the car, preferring to stick to me like a koala bear.  Surprisingly though, although he looked happy and recognized the route to the mall, no excited panting accompanied his joy.  Nevertheless we arrived and I was happy that there were plenty of parking lots available.

After reading about Susan and little Samuel’s pleasant dining experience at Wong Kok Kitchen last week, and since we have never tried the food there, I thought we might as well give it a shot.  The restaurant was not packed and we were promptly seated, with Ethan of course occupying a very familiar Ikea white and silver high chair.  I ordered the wanton mee and the char-siew pastry puff: stuff I figured Ethan would like to eat too. 

He seemed very happy in the restaurant, even kicking his legs in rhythm to the music being played.  With his cheeky smile and strategically positioned high chair (he was facing the counter area), it didn’t take long for him to command the attention of the servers at the restaurant.  I was rather astonished that he didn’t scream loudly in protest when they all started looking and smiling at him, instead he smiled back, well sometimes he showed his cheeky toothy grin… and when he was too overwhelmed, he lowered his head and peered shyly at them.  He did take a few spoonfuls of the mee too, but not the pastry.

Overall, it was a fun experience for both Mommy and Ethan. He was at his bestest behaviour and I was very proud of him …actually, the first time I’d taken him out for a meal myself 🙂  Pete was a tad concerned if I would be able to handle Ethan on my own in the mall, but his fears were unfounded because Ethan is always in a good mood in the mall… and that just makes everything so much easier…

After dinner, we went for a walk to Borders to get a copy of January’s Malaysian Women’s Weekly… here’s why…

What a fabulous way to start our weekend, eh?

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