Baby Onigiri

Was in the mood for experimenting with new foods for Ethan, so I tried making Baby Onigiri (rice balls)! Quite an interesting first try -- managed to get them to the size of a teaspoon and Ethan was able to eat them in 2 bites! Made some with fish fillings and some plain ones. They made good travel food and Ethan polished all of them off by mid morning!

Captivating Esplanade

Yesterday we went to the Esplanade for a late afternoon outing and Ethan sure loved the new sights! There were these cool colourful hanging thingies... kind of like his mobile at home, but a more grown-up verson. Daddy to sat on the grass with him and while they hung out together, the colourful danglies hung just low enough for Ethan to stand up and play with them.

And stand he did! In fact, it was his most stable performance to date - more than 10 seconds per session as he balanced, wiggled, and showed us that the shoes we bought for him were a more than worthy investment.

We spent a long time sitting by the water's edge. Ethan really liked the view and we even ate cotton candy! Someone got his first taste, albeit very tiny, of sweet candy...

It was really nice to have our own little family outing!

What a fabulous day by all! Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was good value for money too: $2 parking + $1 cotton candy + $12 dinner at Marina Square's new Loft food court (great chicken curry mee)! The best thing were the memories of Ethan enjoying his time with the view and these photos capturing his fascination. The beach will be an upcoming destination in the near future...

Rubber Time

Ethan never fails to be enthralled by his rubber sea urchin toy. Here he is entertaining himself with various permutations of elasticity after polishing off his lunch macaroni! We like the rubber toy too -- it gives us a few precious minutes to enjoy our lunch before someone gets restless again!

The Boys

Ethan loves hanging out with his Daddy and they often have a screaming good time together. (In fact he is screaming "Deh deh deh" excitedly as he peeks through the cot while I'm blogging now!) He is certainly losing his 'baby' looks and becoming more and more like a little boy now! This week we found him standing all on his own in the middle of our bedroom for quite a while--looks like he'll be toddling around very soon!

Eating on the Run

Ethan's milestone of turning one means that we can now adjust our modus operandi and do more things with him. One activity he enjoys since Gong Gong first started him on it a couple of months back is going shopping from the bird's eye view of a trolley!

Last week after buying a load of groceries we decided to grab a bite of lunch in the newly renovated food area outside the supermarket at Plaza Singapura. Unfortunately most of them were more like Take Away outlets -- and so the ever-useful shopping trolley became a high chair as well!

Boys' Toys

We didn't think Ethan would take to hi-tech toys at such a young age, but he's been developing a deep attachment to techie toys like our computers and handphones...and we are quite amazed at the attention span he is able to give to these toys! So we have decided to give Ethan his very own handphone to play with. (Shh...don't tell him but it's actually Mummy's old handphone which still works well, has fun lights and even camera function but with SIM card removed.) I was amazed when a day later he had changed the wallpaper on the phone all by himself!

A strange feeling of deja vu hit me as I was looking at this photo of Ethan -- somehow his handphone fascination reminded me of someone else when he got his new handphone! (see Blog Post of 22 Sept 06) No mystery where Ethan gets his love of techie toys from!

Baby Food - Adult Food

It was time for Ethan to try his first pasta, so I attempted a modified bolognese with macaroni. Here is the first stage with my regular minced beef, onions, and herbs. But this time it was less garlic, less pepper, hardly any olive oil, and added carrots.

Canned tomatoes are easy to use for adult pasta, but I wanted to avoid the extra salt and had run out anyway. So in went some chopped cherry tomatoes and a tiny bit of sugar. The rich colour and consistency still required tomato paste though, which had some salt in it. It looked and smelled yummy.

The macaroni cooked in the meantime, and combining the two resulted in this army of macaroni bolognese. Unfortunately it has to be off to the freezer for this platoon, so Ethan will have to try his first pasta microwaved. Not exactly the choicest of options, but since al dente is too hard for him anyway I don't think it mattered too much.

After all that it was time for the taste-test. Not ours, but Ethans. Turns out that while he seems to like the pasta and the tomato sauce the beef (though as small as I could make it) took a bit of effort to chew as does the pasta. So he ate quite a bit slower than usual and seemed to get tired after all that chewing. Verdict: Partial success. Next time, more sauce and less meat!

As for mummy and daddy, we treated ourselves to grilled portobello mushrooms and a fresh hamburger patty melt on rustic bread with a lovely mixed salad. While Ethan's smelled and looked quite appetizing, ours was still better...

Fascinated

Switches and buttons, especially those with lights with absolutely fascinating nowadays. On, off, on, off goes the electricity. This also applies to elevator buttons, stereo amplifiers, DVD players, security access readers, microwaves, and whatever new things Ethan can get his curious hands on.

Walking is Hard Work

Ethan's been hard at work practicing his standing, balancing, walking and (at grandparents') stair-climbing skills -- all important skills to be a fully mobile toddler! Going from all 4's to just 2 feet takes quite a bit of coordination. Here he is deep in contorted concentration while cruising around the chair in our living room! It sure makes me realise and appreciate how much coordination our bodies perform everyday in doing simple things like walking that we don't even think about!

Chawan Mushi

Gosh! Look what gourmet delight mummy made for Ethan... it's chawan mushi for babies! This low-salt alternative still has bonito stock so it still has some saltiness as we're gradually relaxing the no-salt no-sugar guide since we're past 12 months. Mummy's chawan mushi is the smoothest and best there is (she says the secret is very slow steaming that takes 15-20 minutes to cook) and result is always delicious. Youre looking at the baby cup version without the shitake mushrooms but Ethan still lapped it all up. His expression changed and he grinned at mummy with a big smile on his first bite. He then proceeded to wolf it all down!

I Think I'm In Control

Oh the joys of remote controls! Ethan quickly grabs one whenever it's in sight. The more buttons the better, so this stereo remote control isn't the best but it sure does make him happy. He's blasted us by turning up the volume to deafening decibel levels on a few occasions.

Rain Drops on My Head

Standing and exploring is much more fun than sitting down. So since Ethan now spends more time trying to get out of his baby bath rather than sitting in it, he has graduated to the shower. Here his favourite things to do are grab the silver coloured shower hose (he likes all wires and cables... doesn't know about wireless yet) and to feel the droplets spraying on him. He looks a little cross-eyed in this photo staring at the rain drops. You would too if you were trying to examine each one! Thankfully his eyes are normally straight at other times...

Ethan Loves Music

Ethan loves to explore the TV and stereo when music is playing. Now that he can cruise along he likes to stand there, explore a little, and dance to the music. Though he enjoys sweetie baby music, he seems to prefer things with stronger rhythms and beats. In the middle of this range is this children's rendition of What A Friend We Have in Jesus!

New Haircut

Someone's hair was getting a bit long so we had a haircut this morning. It's quite tough to cut a wriggly baby's hair, especially when he keeps trying to turn around see what you're doing. As a result, things are always a bit uneven and today Ethan had a "hole" in his hair. Some doctoring of the cut resulted in an acceptable "tough guy" cut with short hair all around and longer one on top. Perhaps Ethan knew we were trying to ensure he is groomed well and looking handsome because he immediately grabbed the brush on his change table and began brushing his own hair!

You can't see the "hole" on this side nor his crooked fringe! He was getting restless so we had to stop and we'll continue the haircut tomorrow...

De De

Ethan's first word! He repeats it very often... just that we're not 100% sure exactly what it means. The word is De De or de de depending on what you think it means!


What does this oft-repeated phrase conjure in Ethan's mind? It could be:

1. Daddy (this is Ivan's vote, backed up by the fact that Ethan sometimes says De De when he sees a picture of his Daddy)
2. Computer - as in compu-de-de (this is Ethan's favourite thing and he also says de de when looking at the PC even when it's off and no picture of Daddy is on it)
3. Anything Electronic (Ethan sometimes says it when he sees a handphone)
4. All of the above (Daddy is highly associated with the computer and handphone so de de could all these things which make him happy)

This has got me thinking. Poor mummies. They do most of the work of baby raising and the first word out of a babie's mouth is not usually "mama" because the Mmmm sound is more dificult than the hard De or Da sound. Is it the same with other languages I wonder?