Gobbling Bananas

[PREVIEW IS BLANK BUT VIDEO WORKS!]

One of Ethan's favourite new foods is bananas. He gets it mixed in with his rice cereal and it sure makes everything yummy and sweet. We often pack his dinner when we do our dinner and grocery outings. One of our favourites places is IMM Jurong (but only on weekdays when it's not so crowded). Ethan enjoys his dinner and is a very good gobbler, finishing all his food so that Mummy and Daddy can enjoy some couple time over their meal later.

Rrrrrr... Ha ha ha!

Ethan's learning to make sounds with his mouth. When he learns something new he often finds it very funny and will laugh and laugh when we repeat it back to him. The baby development books says it helps him know that he's doing well and affirms him continuing to try out more sounds. Here he is chuckling away over the Rrrrrr... sounds!

Peekaboo!

Yes, it's the age-old favourite game and a couple of weeks ago Ethan started to find this extremely amusing, often roaring with laughter most approvingly. I caught this one on video last week when I was changing him just before dinner. It's shakey cos I was ducking below the table while holding the camera above with one hand!

Pouring Water on Mr. Penguin

One of the water games we play with Ethan is The Pouring Water Station. We're trying to get him comfortable with water on his face and head! Just beginning now he's learning that it's fun to pour water on his friend Mr. Penguin. Soon, it will be fun to pour water on his own head and face...but we'll need some more time! We also discovered he likes to "swim" in the front position but he doesn't do the frog-like kick that we thought babies did. Hmmm....maybe that will come later?

Get Well Soon Ah Mah

Ah Mah had a toothache and had to go to the dentist this week, and because of that Ethan missed his usual Monday's with her and Yeh Yeh. So today we all had a nice dim sum lunch and Ethan presented his Ah Mah with a "get well" card. It's his first art-work!

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!

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!

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...

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!

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!

Bath Time is Funny!

Chuckles... for the last few days, Ethan has been especially tickled about something after his bath time. He will chortle away after he's taken out of the water and wrapped in a snug towel!

Ethan Laughing

His cute little laugh is very infectious! Turn up the volume as this was taken from our mobile phone so is quite soft...

Ikea Fun Park

A few weeks ago we went to IKEA in Tampines and it was one of the most fun days out we had yet! This was not only because parking was free, but also because admission to this fun park is also gratis. Throw in some creativity and with all the props around IKEA it really is a wonderful FREE theme park.

Picture above is Ethan in the spinning egg chair. It isn't spinning here... yet. But after Ethan got comfortable, I twirled him around at startling speed and he loved it. Funny how kids like feeling dizzy! Didn't want to overdo it so we moved over to the driving circuit. Daddy provided all necessary sound effects happily seated on the floor with Ethan

Things were going wonderfully well but the day was far from over yet. We enjoyed many of the children's rooms and Ethan exercised and swung around with these hanging curtains. This was perfect timing cos a few weeks ago, Ethan's shoes were quite new and he was just getting used to it all. It was so fun we were even thinking about where we could hang these swinging curtains in our home!

Things just got and better when we found the slide! I ran over and lifted Ethan to the top. The very first time he looked down at the slide and looked at me apprehensively. A gentle push and as Ethan slid down, his expression changed to pure ecstatic joy. He screamed with laughter, got to the bottom and strained towards the slide to go again. The video really captures this well. It shows him going down twice, but we must have done the slides close to 20 times. The icing on the cake was that it was air-conditioned so Daddy didn't have to sweat at all!

Ethan's Bath Time

Another video of Ethan's bath, but this time he's much bigger and talking more. Weighing in at over 5.5 kg and 2.5 months old, here's our little tiger!

Baby Toys

Ethan has been learning how to play with his toys! Here he is at 5.5 weeks old looking at his toy rabbit and ball, and at 8 weeks with his baby gym. Dad has since learned that when Ethan looks away, it's not because he has a short attention span but because he's over stimulated. All those sights and sounds are overloading him cos he's taking in so many new sensations!

Bath Time

Ethan's bathing, getting dressed, and getting ready for the world! A few more days and the 1 month confinement is over... Ethan will be seeing the big world outside our little apartment.

Baby Aerobics!

Ethan's first video on his own blog! Check out how active our little boy can be at only 3 weeks.