First Flight on an Airplane

Just before 9pm on Wed 28 Mar, we boarded the airplane for Ethan's very first flight! Here we are standing at the door waiting to walk out on the tarmac and up the stairs into our Tiger Airway's plane. For those who don't know, it's a budget airline carrier so there are no sky-bridges and no bassinets for babies.


Ethan was an EXTREMELY good baby on the flight! He sat with Mummy the whole time, except when she had to make bathroom trips then Daddy held him. He hardly cried at all during the flight. We tried to make him suckle during take-off and landing so he would swallow and equalize the air pressure. There was toddler in the row in front of us who wailed quite loudly, and we think that upset him a bit but generally he was a very good baby!

Family Mission Trip

This evening we are flying to Thailand on our first mission trip as a family. Ethan is the youngest tripper of our large team,, turning 6 months old during our time there. We will be back just after Sunday night (so no blogging until next week).

Do pray that Ethan will take to flying and travelling well! We hope he'll behave too, so Mummy can fully participate in things and Daddy can minister and do his work well.

Spotty

Poor Ethan got a bunch of spots appearing on his face over the weekend. It was there during his child dedication on Sunday but flared up more after that. We think they are insect bites. Thankfully they don't seem to bother him at all.

Child Dedication

Yesterday, we had a Child Dedication ceremony at our church service. Ethan was one of many babies/children to be dedicated that day. Both sets of grandparents plus Goo Ma (Auntie Mei) came to witness the event!


Pastor Kenny prayed for Ethan and for us. May you grow up to love God and fulfil the purpose for which He created you my son! Perhaps Ethan will be a pastor like his daddy, but he can find his own path and be anything he wants... perhaps the doctor that Daddy didn't end up becoming, or the war journalist that Mummy considered being! If he becomes a medical missionary ministering in the middle-east he can combine all three!! (I can hear grandparents gasping right now...)

New Haircut

Tomorrow is a big day! Ethan's having his "Child Dedication" at church and both sets of grandparents are coming! We gave him an "army style" haircut so he will look neat and smart for the occasion. He does look smarter, and Mummy thinks his new haircut emphasizes his eyes but Daddy thinks he also looks fatter in it. Hmmm... post a comment and tell us what you think!

Sitting Up

Ethan is rapidly picking up new physical skills! He literally grows stronger and more confident each day in sitting up, holding himself up on his stomach, and pushing himself along the bed (not exactly crawling yet, but the first stage). Here he is sitting up. After a few rounds of his he'll get tired and let us know that he's had enough exercise!

Sippy Cup on My Own

After lunch, Ethan continued sipping on water. He didn't like water when he was younger, but we kept trying to give it to him once in a while. Finally, when he started cereal he would take to water which is a great thing! We got the Avent sippy cup add-on, complete with cute little handles. It has a soft rubber sipping spout which is great for Ethan to bite on so he likes this one more than his other sippy cups. He's grabbing at the spoon and bottle more often now, wanting to feed himself!

Making Friends at Ikea

On Thursday we went to the new Ikea in Tampines! It's huge and the restaurant and play area for kids is really nice. Our primary reason for going was to buy the Ikea ANTILOP High Chair. After looking at various models, we decided to go for the one which many people (including personal reviews on the Internet) say is cheap and good. Ethan tried it out at the restaurant and he quickly made a new friend! A toddler came over and they had a short discussion on the pros and cons of this particular model.



At home, Ethan seems to like it. We put a cushion on the back (didn't buy Ikea's inflatable one for $9) and find that it's very good.

Hanging Out At Church

As you can see, we've been having fun with our new mini video camera and it's working really well. We love how it's small so we have it with us very often, and get quick video clips. I've also switched over to using Picasa2 for our photo and video management software. This allows blogging from within the software (not that well implemented) and video upload to Google Video (this works great). So our little videos are as easy to manage and blog as photos!



Ethan was just hanging out in the church office last Sunday after services and meet-ups with people were over!

Sleepy and Tired

Today is Wednesday, Renata's kendo night, so I stayed at home with Li'l Bubs at night after coming back from the Love East Timor DA meeting. I was tired since I'm slightly sick, and Ethan's been a bit cranky. He kept wanting attention, until even being with me didn't seem to satisfy him. So I put him down and left him alone to cry a bit to see if he would fall asleep. It had been only 2 hours since his dinner so he shouldn't be hungry...

20 min later and bubs is still crying, so I warmed a bit of milk in the bottle. He gobbled it down, finished it, and wanted some more because it was only about 40ml. Poor fella was hungry! "Sorry Ethan, I'll get you some water." So I put him down and off I went, but when I came back 1 min later the little guy was fast asleep! Looks like just a bit of milk did the trick!

Here he is in the dark. Sleepy and tired, but a bit of milk popped him off to baby-dreamland...

Toes Discovery

Ethan has just discovered more things to suck on! Attached to his feet are 10 funny finger-like things that fit perfectly into his mouth! He seems to enjoy this new taste sensation and was last seen popping his toes into his mouth in his bath.

Eat This Book

Eugene Peterson has published a new book and it looks like Ethan is interpreting it quite literally...

A Fun Day Off

Yesterday was our day off, so we went out and about trying to run errands and have some fun as a family. A big objective of the day was to look for a high-chair for Ethan. There is of course the ubiquitous Ikea ANTILOP High Chair for the bargain basement price of $33 ("cheap and good" say many parents), but we wanted to see what others there were.

Here is the Graco Contempo Highchair on sale at Robinsons. We were surprised that Ethan is already quite stable in it and seemed to find it comfy. I didn't know high chairs were so expensive. This one was $168 on sale!



Ethan napped in his comfy stroller quite a bit then woke up when we stopped for tea at a local coffee shop. It's a bit noisy but you can hear him laughin as he play the "Choo Choo" game with him. It's hard to describe... Daddy just made it up one day and Ethan loves it...

Teething

Ethan seems to have started teething. He's been drooley and constantly wanting to bite on whatever he can get his hands on. Unfortunately we forgot where we stashed his teething rings until just 2 weeks ago, so Ethan's had to improvise in the meantime. So far he has tasted tissues, books, toys, fingers, blankets, spoons, pillows and his ABC flashcards!

Tummy Rub

Last week we got a new MP4 video camera - a Sanyo Xacti C40 that saves MPEG-4 video onto an SD card. It's a tiny thing that we can use anywhere to get more precious videos of our little one while he's still small. It's much better quality than the video from our digital camera (used in previous blog posts) at 640x480 at 30fps. Though the quality is just slightly less than DVD, it's quick and easy to use and much cheaper than a full size DVD quality camcorder.

Here is Ethan getting a tummy rub to calm his angsty mood. This was taken when he was still pink from his mild allergic reaction to cereal with formula milk. His first taste of non-breastmilk wasn't so good!

Home Internet Down

Our internet access at home has been very unreliable in the past week. Grrr... Singnet hasn't responded well either. Some sites can be accessed but slow. Many other sites cannot be accessed at all. It's very strange, and we can't log in to Blogger to update our blog.

A Bit Sick

Ethan was a bit sick recently. It could have been the ham that we ate the previous night that also gave Mummy a tummy-ache, or it could be a mild allergic reaction to the new cereal we tried to give him. The previous cereal was "rice only" so we added breast milk, but this new cereal was "rice and milk" - the milk being from skimmed cow's milk. It looks like his body didn't like this cos he went slightly pink and was in a not-so-good mood.

Prisoner!

This morning I came into Ethan's room and found him like this! He had pushed himself all the way to the corner of his cot and was peering out of the bars...

It was actually quite late in the morning (around 8.45am) and Ethan had been up for quite a while. He seems to wake up anywhere from around 6.30am to 8.00am but will usually amuse himself for some time before he gets hungry enough to start fussing so that we can hear him. This morning, he wasn't fussing - just playing - and slurped down his 160ml breakfast very quickly.

His rash has been the best it's ever been for the last few days but still not 100% disappeared. I've started wrapping him up in his light cotton blanket so he can't swipe at the creams I've been putting on his face. Kind of like a temporary straitjacket so he can't hurt himself!

Ethan's Prayers

I sat down this morning to do a very quick video blog, but then I picked a song and memories and thankfulness kept flowing for an hour. So here's Ethan's Prayer of thanks and simple hopes for the future. It's our best video of Ethan yet!



Hint: You can always click on "Google Video" button for larger video window

Daddy's Love Makes Me Happy

Daddy's love makes me so happy I just can't stop smiling and laughing. Mummy took this video of me having great fun with Daddy.



I was so happy that that night I actually chortled myself to sleep!

Drinking From a Cup

Today Ethan walloped a huge amount of 2.5 tablespoons of rice cereal with milk. This is quite a lot considering this is only his fifth day trying solid food. He seems to love it, and at this rate will work his way up to a full meal (3-4 tablespoons) by the end of the week. At that time, we'll start giving him a second meal with cereal. Currently it is lunch, so next it will be dinner which should send him off to dreamland quite effectively.

Because he's eating solids and not just milk, Ethan gets thirstier so he's taking water now. We decided to give that to him from a sippy cup and he's taking to it quite well. We're quite proud of him that he's eating well and drinking water happily!

On the negative side of things, solid food (no longer breast milk only) means poos are smellier, and the nappy changes sure are manifesting this new reality.

Head and Neck Exercises

We give Ethan a bit more tummy time now. This is when we roll him over on this tummy and for a short while he can pull himself up to this position. The world looks quite different and interesting from this vantage point!

However, Ethan can't hold this position for too long so... whump... his head drops back down onto the bed! Don't worry, he wasn't hurt at all. He picks himself up with a curious look a few seconds later!