Sick Week

We're coming to the end of a "sick week" for Mum and Dad. First Ivan got the flu bug, then passed it to Renata who had a mild fever. Fortunately, Ethan never caught it. A few people told us that babies have natural antibodies, not just from the breastmilk but also antibodies of their own so they rarely get sick. To be on the safe side, Renata has taken to wearing a mask while feeding Ethan so as not to cough on him as they are sharing close-quarters for a long time during the feed. The first time she wore it, he gave her a funny, "Are you mummy?" look!

Ivan's also been trying to take it easy this week so he can recover from the flu, and it's almost all gone now. One of the favourite huddle positions for father and son is now this one which both have perfected on any available sofa, including this one and grandma and grandpa's place.

Ethan is sleeping quite well. He achieved a personal best last night, dozing 7 hours between feeds and waking up just before 7am for the sunrise.

A Busy Day

Ethan loves checking out new places and the newly developed IMM is one of them. Ethan's accompanying his parents to a Hong Kong street food cafe. He had a busy day today having had lunch with the WEFC Missions committee then showed up at the BRMC Mums and Babes talk in the afternoon.

Bath Time for the Big Boy

Ethan now at 8 weeks, 5.2 kg

Ethan's grown so much that some people say they wouldn't have been able to recognize him having seen his photos when he was just 2 weeks old. Below is a picture of one of first few baths at home. Yes it's the same bathtub but when he first bathed in it, he could fit in using just the breadth of it!

Ethan at 1 week. Birth weight was 2.62kg

Our hi-tech Oregon Scientific weighing scale at home is courtesy of DBS Credit Card points! This is how Daddy weighs Ethan now and then.

Giving Ethan A-Weigh

Chubby Lubby Baby

Ethan is just shy of 2 months old and he has become quite "solid" already at 5.1 kg - double his birth weight. All of Mum's milk is definitely going somewhere. He looks quite different from his first 1-2 weeks birth photos, and is starting to outgrow some of his small mittens and booties already. See those strong arms and legs?

Some people have summer vacation homes - Ethan has 2... one at each Grandparents house. This one is the new "Lubby Baby" cot we got at Carrefour as the l'il bub needed a safe place to sleep. It looks exactly like the close to $300 Graco cot, but cost us only $108 with that comfy mattress. Ethan knows a good buy when he sleeps on one, and is already putting it to good use.

It feels like Ethan has grown up and changed so much already! This is his photo from only 7 weeks ago when he was tiny newborn. Sniff sniff...

Weekend Warriors

Renata's team mates at the Singapore Kendo Club are busy preparing for the upcoming World Championships next month so she went to support them at training and give Ethan an early taste of the arenaline rush from a good fight!

Woodlands Scenic Tour

Daddy has been raving about the cheap n good food at Republic Poly, so Ethan and Mummy decided to check it out for themselves. We were pleasantly suprised at how nice and baby friendly it was with lots of access ramps and open spaces. We recommend the ayam bakar -generous servings with fresh fragrant sambal for just $2.80!

Food for Milk

Today for lunch we ate this! Ivan made this creation of baked penne with beef bolognese sauce topped with melted cheddar and parmesan cheese. The twist was using bunashimeji mushrooms for the sauce instead of the normall button ones and it turned out yummy!

Renata enjoyed it, and she sure needs to with all the output this milk bar has to make every day. Ethan regularly gulps down 120ml now, and last night slept for 6.5 hours. This means Renata is burning lots of calories producing all that milk, so she can now polish off 3 bowls of rice in one meal - more than Ivan!

Ethan's also just finished his lunch so we're going out today! Doesn't he look happy to see the world? Carrefours at Plaza Singapura and both Grandma's houses for now... Bye bye Ethan, have a great day!

Swedish Camouflage

We are in Ikea now outside the restaurant. Ethan's blending in with the other shopping carts! Perhaps we're supposed to leave him here and go in to eat...

First Day at WEFC

Today was Ethan's first day at Ivan's church - Woodlands EFC, but we were quite rushed and didn't get to take any pictures. So many nice Aunties and Uncles gave gifts to Ethan... he feels so loved already! But it was a rushed day cos Mummy and Daddy got free tickets to see Notre Dame de Paris at 3pm (it was very good). Ethan will be back next week!

Longest Sleep

Ethan just had his longest night time sleep ever! He was well behaved yesterday, and Mum took him for a walk to the nearby park all by themselves while Dad was at work. He was even well behaved at night and as you can see, he had a drink at Mum's Milk Bar at 1:10am then slept all the way until 6:30am when Dad's Drink Stop opened. He just now took 125ml from a bottle with Dad. Little Ethan is now 4.3kg at 6 weeks. Keep growing little fella - you'll be running around soon!

Pizza Lunch

Mummy just got a new phone so she can now make video calls with Ethan and we are celebrating with a pizza lunch. This way, Ivan wont have to miss out when Ethan says his 1st words!

Big Move

Now that Ethan is a big boy after passing his Full Month, it's time for him to have his own room and begin learning to sleep on his own. Although his bed has wheels on it, our corridor is a little too narrow for us to push it from our room to his. Once again Super Dad swung into action and swiftly dismantled the cot and reassembled it while Mummy fed and kept Ethan busy in the living room!


Ethan's room is now very comfortable and Daddy even fixed a built in night light that sits neatly at the bottom of the bed. Enjoy your new room Ethan!

Good Mood - Bad Mood

Ethan is so expressive. Here he is putting on two different faces with grandma... but he still looks cute even with the bad mood face!

Mystery Solved!

The mystery of the worm is solved! The doctors at NUH called us on Monday to tell us that the laboratory report states the 'worm' in Ethan's ear was actually the larvae of a fly. The picture above is not the actual infidel, but a similar one I found on the Internet. Ethan's persecutor was older cos it was longer, had dark spots, and lots of little legs.

Since it was a fly larvae, it seems that this was a one-in-a-million kind of accident where a fly landed on Ethan's ear, laid an egg, and the egg happened to drop inside and it grew until it became a larvae. When it started to get bigger and move around, it caused pain and secretions to come out of the ear. While this sounds quite horrible, it is actually good news. This means that it was not the result of contamination or human to human transmission, so there is no reason to fear a repeat occurrence.

It has been quite funny to hear the variety of postulated theories before the lab report came back - everything from wood-worm infected the cot, a human worm from the parents, infected car seats, and worm-from-apple dropped while Mum was taking a bite and holding Ethan sideways! I guess all were possible except the last one...

First Outing

We went on our first outing with Ethan on Sunday! Since he is now 1 month old, we told him that he is growing up and needs to see the outside world. We were also itching to take him somewhere. In the end we decided to check out the newly renovated Botanic Gardens' entrance and food court. You know how when you get a new toy, you suddenly notice 'everyone' has one too? Well, our eyes were opened to all the babies and the families everywhere, and there sure were a lot of them at Botanic Gardens.

We had a great time on our short excursion and Ethan behaved himself very well throughout our time. He woke up and cried a bit as we were finishing dinner, but it was outdoors which was a plus. The food court has great ambience and they play nice music, though incongruous with all the local fare. It needs a good pasta/pizza stall so next time we could come back with some wine!