Biking

Ethan's cycling! Daddy is so excited but I'm not there to see it! He's had a tricycle for a while but just got the hang of moving his feet is circles. Ohhhh... he likes the speed. Here he is maneuvering quite expertly through the obstacle course of our corridors, looking quite pleased with himself at his new found capabilities.

Driving Ms Talia

Ethan not only likes driving Daddy's car, he also likes playing with his own. He does modification, washes it, and of course drives his sister too! What a sweet pair - and both in yellow too! He really treats Talia well, being gentle and protective of her, and we can already see that she in turn adores her big brother.

Talia's Passport Photo

Talia is 6 months old and getting her first passport for her trip to Langkawi with parents and grandparents. We held her up against the wall and she smiled beautifully! I told Ethan, "Sorry son, Talia's passport photo is much nicer than yours cos we had to take yours when you were only 2 months old in your fat, least-cute stage!"

Happy Birthday Daddy

Ethan's eyes widened and a broad smile brightened his face as he recognized the work of art that Mummy carefully slid out from the white envelope. "Daddy!" he exlaimed. "Ethan, this is the birthday card you made for Daddy yesterday," said Mummy. "Tell Daddy what you drew for him!"

"Circles...snakes!" Ethan said as he proudly pointed to various colourful circular squiggles and squiggly lines all over the page. He then proceeded to tell me many things about what he did on the paper which I did not understand, yet understood fully. Another thing I now understand is why parents go gah gah over their toddler's art work... a peculiar phenomena which I never appreciated to know. Ethan's birthday card to daddy will be laminated and displayed!

Thanks Ethan and thanks Mummy for facilitating the wonderful birthday card! :)

First Day of School

It was a monumental day that required months of planning and preparation. It was Ethan's first day of school! What fun it would be! How many friends you meet, and how quickly Mummy would come back! All these were drummed into Ethan months ago and here we are on the big day.

Daddy walked Ethan to school, in what is to become our daily routine and composed a new song for Ethan:

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.
I'm looking very smart, and feeling very glad.
Carrying my bag - Gosh, I'm just like Dad!

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.
Everybody laughs and nobody cries,
Cos Mummy comes back in a twinkle of an eye!

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.
There are friends to meet and games to play,
That's why we love to go to school every day!

We stayed a long time with Ethan on that first day before leaving. He enjoyed playing with all sorts of things, and unsurprisingly, particularly enjoyed the play-time food. Here he is playing with one of the cutest little girls in the class. Actually, he enjoyed the real food too, eating his own pau before scooting sideways to bite into the uneaten pau of the girl sitting next to him.

One of his friends there is Issac, who lives in the same place we do! So Daddy and Ethan often bump into Christina and Issac going to school. Ethan's born late in the year in September so is quite a bit smaller than most of the kids. Some of them are much faster at snatching toys than he is, but Ethan is too much of a peacemaker to know that this is happening.

A Day at the Zoo

Gosh, it was a really fun day at the zoo... Daddy feels sad now that he couldn't join them. Ethan is the bumble bee in the video, and the other cute girls are Heather and Emma, Ethan's cousins! Thanks to A. Mei (Goo Ma) who took the pics and made the video!

Just Like Daddy

We try not to disturb Ethan when he's focussed on a task at hand because he really concentrates on it... often he can't hear you when his mind is occupied anyway. We checked with Grandma who says that Ivan was exactly the same when young! So Ethan is just like Daddy! His facial expression when concentrating is also just like Daddy!

Latte Lover

Ethan has been a regular fan of Daddy's barista aspirations. He runs to the kitchen and stares whenever he hears the grinder going and stays to watch the final milk pour. I've been giving him bits of frothed milk previously, so this morning I decided to make him his own! Of course, it's not a cappucino but a coacacino - Ethan's very own mini cocoa latte!

Left to Right: Daddy's Cappucino, Ethan's Cocoacino

So how did Ethan like it? We took a few videos, selected the two best and stitched them together. Absolutely a must-see! Look for the wiggles of delight and turn on your sound to hear a toddler's appreciate aaaahhh!. This is one of our favourites of our fine food loving son!

Couch Climber

Ethan is now able to scale the couch! We found the cute little boy lying there and smiling at his parents, being extremely pleased with his new achievement. He's so adorable it just drives us nuts sometimes!

He will now climb up to sofa unassisted, sit down and turn on the television! He doesn't know how to select channels yet, but he's quite happy simply looking at the flashing "NO SIGNAL" display on our TV!

A Mopping Good Time

Absolutely hilarious and must see! Ethan was watching Mummy mopping the floor at home and tried to grab the Magic Mop. He obviously wanted to help out with the chores, so Mummy let him and took this video. You would never guess that this is his first time mopping the floor! Watch through it all for the surprise ending...

Sydney Aquarium

We just got back from Sydney which was our first family holiday with Ethan. We went with Grandma and Grandpa to see Josie, Ethan's cousin, who was only a few weeks old. Ethan got to see Sydney too, and one of the first places we went to was the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour.

One parenting book we read had the good advice [paraphrased] of, "If going to the zoo with your toddler will stress your budget and stress you if he's more interested in the sparrows than the seals, then go to the park instead!" Good advice, cos Ethan was just as interested in the pillars as as the porpoises. Thankfully we had a 2-for-1 coupon into the Aquarium, and the 3 of us had good memories together. At the seal habitat, one even crawled up the ramp to pose with our Ethan.

After the Sydney Aquarium we walked along Darling Harbour and enjoyed the wonderful weather. It was quite sunny so Ethan's hat was really useful. Daddy and Ethan have matching hats given to us by church friends Norman and Janet. They are printed "Ivan" and "Ethan" on them and they're really cute. Ethan loves his, and Daddy loves wearing his together with Ethan.

Refreshments were at the Lindt Cafe and a good time was had by all!

Daddy in the Cot

Heh heh... one of our favourite games that we play now is Daddy-in-the-cot. First, you must understand that when we bought this cot it came with a picture of an obese man standing in it with a sign that said "150kg okay!" Second, I really miss being able to snuggle up in bed with Ethan like we did when he was a little baby (See old post). We can't do that anymore cos he's too active and he'll scramble away.

However, I discovered that when I climb into his cot Ethan just loves it. He grins and laughs when I get it and he'll lie down quietly next to me for a long time. One day he touched my face and looked into my eyes for ages. Sniff sniff... so precious it makes me teary thinking about it. Other times he will happily ready his book while next to me or sitting up leaning against me.

A few days I climed in when he was getting upset over being left alone. He became happy straight away then we looked at each other and just started laughing. It was really funny cos it was one of the times when the previous laugh makes you laugh even harder so we were out of control after about 1 min of non-stop chuckling. Mummy peered in to see what all the ruckus was about!

The Happy Bi-Ped

It's amazing to look at Ethan now and realise that one year ago, he thought his legs were for putting in his mouth and banging on his keyboard toy! Watching him happily toddle around the house is quite heartwarming as we see him become a full-fledged bi-ped!

East Coast Again

We had such fun the last time we went to East Coast Park that we decided to go again. Off we went armed with hats to protect us from the sun. This time, Ethan wore his hat for a very long time - almost the entire outing!

Mummy's hat was even the same kind as Ethan's!

We found a nice place with a bit of shade and rested on our beach towel while Ethan played with his favourite spade. For a while, it felt like we weren't in Singapore at all.

The most memorable part of the day was our bicycle ride! We rented 2 bikes including one with a seat for Ethan. When he first got on he didn't look very impressed with the setup, but once we got going he squealed with delight and grinned as we cycled all the way down the beach stretch. We ended up at the jetty where we sang our "Fish, Fish" song as we looped figure-eights and laughed baby squeals of delight!

A Day at the Beach

It was a beach outing day and we were all ready with our hats! You may have heard about our hat escapades during the Christmas Service at WEFC and here is Ethan with his hat! He's still struggling with seeing the point of it, though he always chuckles when he first sees Daddy with his own hat.

Ethan changed into his swimsuit and we walked out onto the sand. He was very puzzled when he first felt the squishy stuff on his toes but he took to it very quickly! We sat on the sand together and played with our dump trucks, rakes, and spades.

Ethan's favourite toy was the spade. We think it's because it looked like a giant spoon and reminded him of the food he loves. In fact, he tried eating the sand... twice... after which the not-so-good taste put him off repeat ventures. It was such a joy to see him having new experiences, learning new things, and enjoying himself. Now I really understand why parents are so happy when they see their children happy.

Mummy sat and played with Ethan too. Here is a video of him playing with the sand and his shovel. He'll have tonnes more fun when he's able to build sandcastles...

After a fantastic day we walked along the beach, drifting off into the sunset and refreshing ourselves with scrumptious food and the cool sea breeze...

Can you see Ethan still holding onto his spade?

The Reading Room

Ethan had a bit of nappy rash today so he let him crawl around a bit without his nappies to get a good airing. But then we noticed he was leaking! Accck.... so he scooped him up and used the opportunity to put him on his potty trainer. Technically, he's too young for potty training now as bowel control only sets in much later, but he looked so comfortable sitting on his potty that we gave him a book to read! Look at him happily enjoying himself!

No Bottle Mummy!

Ethan seems to no longer want his bottle, yearning more for Mummy. This has brought some stress as we are trying to wean and separation anxiety is setting in too. On the bright side, Ethan will drink his milk from a sippy cup or a spoon, so for this morning's breakfast Daddy sat him on his high chair and fed him from the sippy cup. A fair amount got spilt of course, but Ethan had enough and was very happy afterwards!

He then happily played on the big bed with us for a while. When Ethan plays he's VERY focussed on his toys. Looks like Dad on his computer.

Mr. Drooly

More and more drool! I used to think that baby's drool was so disgusting and wondered how parents ever put up with damp spots on their shoulders and now I am one of them! "Ahh...it's only drool/pee/poo!" goes the saying now. Better get used to it cos with teething, the drool is only increasing!

Swim-Fest

We bought Ethan a new swimming wetsuit and he looks soooo cute in it. This photo doesn't do his new sporty outfit justice! We got this from Kiddy Palace - it's their smallest one sized for 1 year old. Our tubby 6-month old baby fits into it with some room to grow!


Now that we spent $26.90 (after discount) on this wetsuit, we are trying to maximize use of it before Ethan outgrows it. So this morning we took him for a quick dip before his morning bath. It's a bit colder in the morning so he wasn't laughing as much as the previous day!

The wetsuit is really good! Not only does Ethan look very stylish, but he's kept warmer as compared with wearing only shorts. His favourite water activity is zooming around on his l'il speedboat!

Bethany Methodist Nursing Home

After our Good Friday service at Woodlands EFC, we popped by Causeway Point for a quick lunch and to buy a swimsuit (more on that super-cute item later). Then we went to Bethany Methodist Nursing Home as some of Renata's church group from BRMC were there to host a service for the residents. After the service we mingled with some of them and of course (a) Ivan couldn't understand any of the dialects and (b) Ethan brought much joy and big smiles to their faces! Here's one lady who really enjoyed carrying Ethan. He took quite a liking to her as well, happily sitting on her lap for quite a while.

Afterwards there was a short reception where Ethan also got to eat his tea-time milk snack. He finished that, but then was very interested in what Mummy was drinking. He wanted the water so much that we gave him a bit to try...from a different type of bottle! Most of it went down his shirt but he had lots of fun!