Bible Verse of the Day

Getting to know me… (featuring Ethan boy as guest blogger)

November 20, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 5 comments


Scrap Credits
All About Me kit from Bunny Cates
Kit Special embellishments from Sueli Colbert
Pretty Blue papers & Milly doodle from Lindsay Jane Designs
Splendid embellishments from Shabby Princess

I am getting my appetite back slowly but surely.  Yesterday, at Ah-Poh’s house, I walloped a lot of porridge, and just before Mommy and Daddy came to pick me up in the evening, I asked Ah-Poh to make me a feed of milk too.  Hehe…even Mommy and Daddy says that I have begun to bulk up a little already.

Last night, I ran all around our house and played with all my toys.  I missed running around so much last weekend when I was not feeling well. At about 10:30P.M. last night, I decided to call it a night.  I led both Mommy and Daddy to the room, hugged them both and then I drifted off to sleep listening to Mommy singing Silent Night and Away in a Manger.

Today, Mommy said that I could use the computer for a while.  Heh heh… so here I am completing my *homework*…

I was asked by Darrius ko-ko to divulge information about myself in another meme. Hehe…I’ve only met him a few times before in Queensbay Mall and he’s already asking me so many questions. I’m getting popular in the blogosphere, eh?

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Aiyo, I was not even born then la! And neither was Darrius and most of my other friends, I believe…..silly question!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Crawling and cruising around almost everywhere! Oh, and I remember I had my first haircut too, which resulted in a very botak me!

Five snacks you enjoy

Only five? But I love to eat wor…anyway, here are five off the top of my head…

  1. Anything yogurt-like, such as Yakult & Fernleaf Calci-YUM Yogurt
  2. Cereal, like Rice Krispies (Snap Crackle and Pop!) and Corn Flakes.
  3. Pappadums
  4. Raisins
  5. Bread and buns

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to

Donno how to sing yet, but here are the songs I appreciate very much:

  1. ABC (sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). When I hear this song being sung on Baby Einstein, I will say BBBBB…. 🙂 (learning to sing what)
  2. Doh-Re-Mi – I clap my hands whenever Mommy finishes singing this song
  3. The Wheels of the Bus go round and round…
  4. Theme song from Little Einsteins(I can do the “Aaarrrrrrr….” portion)
  5. Song for the Mouskadance. I love tapping my feet to the rhythm.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

  1. Buy a house so that I can buy more toys for myself.
  2. Buy Little Tikes playhouse to put in the garden of the house I bought in No.1.
  3. Buy my own TV and DVD player so I can watch Baby Einstein the whole day long, without Daddy interrupting me to watch SportsCenter.
  4. Build an escalator in my house.
  5. Give money to Mommy and Daddy (if there is any leftover).

Five bad habits

  1. Touching my tongue
  2. Watching too much Baby Einstein
  3. Throwing a tantrum by screaming
  4. Sleeping too late at night and waking up too early in the morning
  5. Waking up in the middle of the night

Five favourite toys

  1. My shape sorter
  2. My doggies
  3. My train ride-on
  4. The boxes I use to store my toys
  5. My Ikea Mula toy

Five things you like doing

  1. Watch Baby Einstein
  2. Ride up and down on the escalators
  3. Eat rice
  4. Pull Mommy and Daddy by the hand together into the room
  5. Sleep on Mommy and Daddy’s bed

Five things you would never eat

Darrius and I think alike on this one …

  1. Medicine
  2. Medicine
  3. Medicine
  4. Medicine
  5. Medicine

Lastly I get to tag my friends:

Charlotte
Bryan
Ching Ern

When will he be Bulat again?

November 19, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Parenting | 9 comments

Ethan is now on the road to recovery. Breaks our hearts to see him suffer the way he did, but I was so glad to wake up on Sunday morning, being greeted by his adorable and cheeky grin.

On Saturday and Sunday, his stools were still primarily watery, I suppose due to the fact that his diet consisted mainly of breast milk only. But I am hoping that with the additional solids he is slowly taking, his diarrhoea will be gone really soon. His appetite has not returned to normal yet, but he took some siew mais and chicken koay teow on Saturday. Funnily enough though, he didn’t want any siew mai on Sunday.

As it turned out, Pete and I were invited to be witnesses at a friend’s wedding in church on Sunday, so we had to drop Ethan off at Mrs Tan’s place for a couple of hours that afternoon. I expressed my concern that he was not eating much yet, and asked Mrs Tan to cook some mee suah for him. When we picked him up, she told us that he happily devoured the mee suah and bread also! So we tarpowed some of the mee suah back home for his dinner.

Guess what? Our boy didn’t want any of the mee suah, but instead chose to share some of my wan ton mee dinner. Maybe he associates mee suah only with Mrs Tan’s house?

He looks ok now, doesn’t he? These are some photos I took yesterday…. pretty blur because he kept moving up and down on the couch. It’s just that he needs to regain his appetite really soon.

It wasn’t overeating!

November 19, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 6 comments

We should have known. Ethan hardly ever overeats. And that first incident of vomiting turned out to be the beginning of a nightmare for all of us.

Chronology of Events

Thursday
8:30p.m. vomited, with slight diarrhoea. Vomitus contained the rice he had taken for dinner.
Breastfed him and gave him a little bit of water. He fell asleep soon after.

Friday
2:30a.m. Woke up and vomited on our bed and on me. There were a few grains of rice, more milk and water in the vomitus.
Cleaned ourselves and our bed up, fed him breastmilk and he slept.

7:00a.m. Woke up, coughed a little and then vomited again. On the bed and on the floor.
Cleaned him up and discovered he had diarrhoea too.
Fed him water, breastmilk and a few grains of Rice Krispies.

8:30a.m. Diarrhoea again.
He drank some Yakult.

9:00a.m. Vomitted all the Yakult out. We all rushed to the hospital after that.

Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long for the doctor that day, and Ethan was quite happy playing with the toys in Dr Jessica’s office. Doctor diagnosed Ethan as suffering from acute gastroenteritis, caused by a virus, possibly the Rotavirus. She said it was not food poisoning, because he did not have a fever. His persistent vomiting and diarrhoea had also resulted in a weight loss of about 1kg!!! He was only 9.9 kilos when he was weighed in. I was very worried about Ethan’s inability to keep food in though, and he was given a dramamine shot to help prevent that. After the shot was administered, we waited in the pediatric ward area for 30 minutes before giving him the oral rehydration salts (ORS) mixture (Dramamine takes 30 minutes to take effect). Well, of course he didn’t want the ORS mixture, and would only take breast milk. Doctor told me to give him only the fore milk for now, so I took him to the nursing room and breastfed him there. After that, we waited for a while for the rice water to be ready. We had ordered some from the hospital and it was one of the fluids that was recommended for Ethan. He didn’t really like it though, took a few sips of it and pushed it away.

Pete and I decided to tarpow Mc-D’s for lunch on the way back, and our boy fell asleep in the car too. But he suddenly woke up when we reached the Mc-D’s in Greenlane, fussed and cried and then threw up again! Luckily I had asked the nurse at the hospital for a plastic bag just in case he vomited. I called Dr Jessica when we reached home, and she said that we would need to bring Ethan in for an intravenous drip if his vomiting still persisted. We certainly didn’t want that! I told the doc we think he vomited because he was lying down instead of standing vertically up, so she said to give it a few hours first.

Poor boy… we took him back and let him rest for a bit. He didn’t really want to drink anything (we were to try offering him fluids like rice water, ORS, 100-Plus or fore breastmilk, but he would only take water and breastmilk), and we could tell that it was the phobia of throwing up whatever he took in. Then he suddenly decided that he wanted Yakult, so I gave him some, and then later on, he suckled himself to sleep again.

Unfortunately as he was sleeping in my arms, he woke up crying and threw up again. This time, I already had a container ready just in case. I tried to rinse Ethan’s mouth with water to get rid of the vomit smell, but he would not let me. I was very worried about Ethan’s condition then, I didn’t want to see him suffer like that, but still I really could not stand the thought of him on the IV drip. It was already 3:30p.m. at that time, and Pete said we ought to give Ethan another chance. And I am thankful we did.

He began to get better and better after that. He fell asleep in my arms at about 5p.m. and I was careful to prop his body up at an angle so that he felt better. I was literally counting the minutes to the 4-hour time frame that he did not vomit. At about 7:30p.m. it marked the 4-hour vomit-free duration, so I tried giving him some Rice Krispies which he gingerly ate. We were still wary about the fact that he could throw up any time but we were glad that he was improving.

He was still having diarrhoea though but we pray that he will recover from that soon.

First time shocker

November 15, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up | 6 comments

We had to do a major clean-up of Ethan’s car seat today.  You know why?  Well, Pete and I left work rather late today, so we decided to fetch Ethan and take him out to dinner with us.  We headed for Queensbay Mall and into Nando’s for dinner.  As usual, Ethan shared my rice with me and then after our meal, we walked around for a bit.  I wanted to check out if Borders carried a book I wanted to buy.  And that was the only place we went to after dinner.  Ethan was very happy and excited and because it was a weekday, he practically had the entire children’s section in Borders to himself.

After that we left Queensbay Mall for home.  As soon as Pete stopped the car in our apartment porch area, Ethan started throwing up!  Pete and I got such a shock because it was really the first time Ethan had ever vomitted so much!  In fact, he only vomitted once before, and that was when he was sick and wouldn’t eat anything, so the quantity of the vomit at that time was very little.  Well, tonight he vomitted so much that his clothes were all soaked.  Of course, he was still strapped into his car seat when it happened, so his entire car seat was dirty too.

I immediately carried him out of his car seat and up to our apartment. And it goes without saying that in the process of doing so, some of his vomit went to my clothes too.  Anyway, I quickly gave him a shower and dressed him up in his pjs.  Ethan looked okay, he was not feverish or anything but he appeared to be in shock, and would not say anything after the incident.  We put on his Baby Einstein DVD for him and I breastfed him for a bit.  And then it wasn’t long before he drifted off to dreamland.  Poor boy…. we told him not to overeat the next time.  No wonder my rice seemed to be less today.

When you sing you begin with…

November 15, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 2 comments

 
Scrap Credits
You Are Beautiful Kit from Verena Karolyi
Designer framed tag from Bannerwoman
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels Media
Kit Moment staples & stitches from Sueli Colbert

It must have started with last weekend when my Mom and Dad started singing the Doh-Re-Mi song to Ethan.  Mom told me that Ethan would clap whenever they sang that song.  Don’t ask me but I have no idea why I never sang this song to him before.  I just started a couple of days ago.  The moment I start singing the song, Ethan’s face would light up and he would be flashing the sweetest smile ever!  And then as soon as I finish singing, he would clap his hands in appreciation and approval!  Of course, Mommy says “Thank you!” la after he claps.  Heh heh.  So now every day, I sing this song over and over again, because who could ever resist that adorable smile hoh?

Wait, there’s more… when I do the “Doh-Mi-Mi, Mi-So-So, Re-Fah-Fah, La-Ti-Ti” bit, he breaks out in laughter, as if it was funnily sung or something.  And if I do it real quick, he laughs even louder.  🙂

So Ethan, when are you gonna start singing in unison with Mommy?

Sleeping like an Angel

November 12, 2007 in Ethan, Sleep | 6 comments

 
Scrap Credits
Silent Night paper from Nicole Kaltenecker
Stacked & Wrapped frame from Ellie Lash
Blueberry Sparkles & Soft Romance elements from Magdalena Marthin
Memories gemstone addon from Lindsay Jane Designs
Sweet Serenity Alphas from Shabby Princess Designs

There’s something completely soothing about the way Ethan sleeps.  I can just sit and watch him for hours.  He looks almost angelic, if I might say so myself.
When he is asleep, sometimes he would break out in a giggle or two and then continue sleeping.  I wonder what he is dreaming of.

Last week, on Deepavali day, right before lunch, our boy fell asleep.  He must have been really tired because he slept from 12 noon till 2:30p.m.!  This is very unlike him, because he would be asleep for one hour tops, and that’s it.  Some afternoons, he goes through without a nap even.  But yesterday he was in a very deep sleep because at one point, he smiled, clapped his hands, turned over and then continued sleeping, oblivious to his surroundings. The weather was also very cooling, so it was absolutely conducive for sleeping.  Pete only went in to wake him up because we were both so hungry by then.  By the time we all had lunch, it was close to 3:30p.m.

If only Ethan could sleep through the night…

To lend a helping hand

November 8, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 4 comments

 
Scrap Credits
Preminition Scrapkit from Laura Burger
Kit Memory cross-stitching & button from Sueli Colbert
Kit Precious heart from Sueli Colbert
Zoo Alphas from Everyday Little Moments Design

Ethan is a very observant little boy and as such, he has been observing what Pete and I do when we get home from work each day.  One of the things we do when we reach home is keep some our things in the drawer.  For example, I would remove my watch and place it in my drawer.  Lately, Ethan has been trying to be as helpful as he can by helping us perform these tasks through role playing.  As soon as I open the door to my room, he would walk to the drawer and wait there.  Then when I remove my watch, he would open the drawer, take my watch from me, place it in the drawer and close the drawer.  Of course, he slams the drawer really loudly though.  But he does get a kick out of hearing us praise him when he does that.  “Good boy!” does it all the time! 😀

The Pappadum Prince

November 6, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 6 comments

We had lunch at Tandoori House last Sunday. It has been years since Pete and I had gone there, and it was comforting to note that not much has changed. It was also Ethan’s first time at the restaurant and he sat in the baby chair provided, albeit without a tray.

When the waiter brought the appetizer in the form of pappadums, Ethan eagerly asked for some. He had tried pappadums before in Passions of Kerala and Old Town, so he knew what they taste like. The pappadums turned out to be the one thing he really enjoyed. I was glad that the pappadums were not oily and hence was okay for Ethan and his “eight teeth with 4 more growing” to munch on.

He was a little bit apprehensive when it came to the rice though. We had ordered the Kashmiri Pulao, which was colorful because it contained raisins, basmathi rice and other herbs and spices like cumin and cinnamon. Ethan would only eat the rice and none of the onions or spices. If he tasted any, he spat the mouthful out.

I gave him some mango lassi too. At first he didn’t want to sip the drink because it didn’t look at all like iced lemon tea, but when I gave him a taste of it from the tip of the straw, he realized that it tasted like his favorite mango yogurt and happily walloped most of it!

Last One Standing

November 5, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan | 11 comments

 

Last Thursday was my last day expressing milk at work.  I started with four (sometimes five) sessions a day when I first returned to work from maternity leave. Then I was on three sessions a day, and soon I was down to expressing twice daily at work.  Eventually I only expressed once a day and for the past couple of months, once a day every other day.  All the hard work I put in produced EBM for Ethan’s consumption while I was at work.  Since Ethan is now okay with no EBM supply during the time I am at work, I decided to stop my alternate day sessions altogether.  It follows that today, when Ethan is officially 1 year, 21 months and 5 days old, he would have taken the last bottle of frozen EBM from the freezer. It is time I packed up both my Medela dual pump, Avent breast pump and all my breast milk storage bottles and put them away until they are needed again in future.

I already feel a part of me is missing now that this chapter is being shelved.  And now, the next step would be to wean him from my breasts.

The Artistic Dog Lover

November 5, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 7 comments

I took Ethan to his playgroup yesterday at Charlotte‘s house. All the mommies had planned for a Little Artist session this time around: Bryan‘s Mommy made edible paint of red and blue, and the rest of us brought along paint palettes and paint brushes.

Charlotte’s Mommy had laid her front porch with mahjong paper, and they were just screaming for color to be splashed all over them. When the time came for the kids to start painting, I decided to remove Ethan’s shirt because the weather was pretty hot. Then I garbed him in his Ikea shirt-bib (it was bare-backed, by the way).

Well, Charlotte, Wei Xuan and Bryan eagerly began dipping their paint brushes into their respective paint palettes and started painting on the mahjong paper. Each child had their own sheet to experiment with. But Ethan was not at all interested. Instead, he was VERY amused by Simba, the golden retriever. He stood at Simba’s cage, and giggled happily as Simba allowed Ethan to pet and stroke his fur. Then he would run around to the other side of the cage and laugh again as Simba played along with him.

In the end, Charlotte’s daddy had to take Simba out for a walk in a bid to allow Ethan a chance to explore with the paint. Alas, his attention span was short-lived and after about 5 minutes, Ethan walked to the gate and stood there, presumably waiting for Simba to return from his walk.

It looks like Ethan really loves dogs, and coincidentally enough, the golden retriever is one of my favorite dogs too. Could his love for dogs be fuelled by the fact that he was born in the year of the dog?

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