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!

Daddy Rocket

Ethan's got a new toy -- it's a Daddy Rocket! It can give him a bird's eye view of things around house -- just twiddle Daddy's thumbs in the desired direction and off we go!

Old Friends, New Friends

This Chinese New Year we visited Wilson & Shih-Huei and their newborn baby, Ezra. Wilson & Shih-Huei are friends from our days in Trinity Theological College who knew us before we got married. Ethan seemed delighted to meet his new friend because when Daddy lifted him near the cot to see Ezra, he started laughing so heartily that we had to carry him out of the room so that he wouldn't wake Ezra up!

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...

Eating With a Spoon!

Today is a historic day. Ethan ate his first semi solids! We prepared some rice-cereal mixed with Mummy's milk. Here it is looking errr... not so yummy from my perspective.

Some people have asked us whether we need to try solids so soon. Ethan is now 1 week shy of 5 months old. Baby manuals say around 4-6 months, depending on the individual baby. Ethan's been happpy with his milk and hasn't been waking up due to hunger or requesting more frequent feeds, but we did notice that the last couple of days he's been biting more (and harder) and has been "smacking his lips". We've also been giving him a spoon to play with on occasion so that he grows accustomed to this new toy.

Armed with a bib and the semi-solid cereal we began just before lunch time! Puzzled expressions soon gave way to swallowing attempts with cereal dribbling down his chin. Then he began to fuss, which was hard to figure out whether it was due to not liking it, that he wasn't able to swallow, or that the spoonfuls weren't coming fast enough. After a few more minutes, Ethan began getting the hang of it as we gingerly fed him a bit more. More fuss cos he was hungry and he couldn't eat it fast enough, so Renata nursed him a while, then we fed him some more cereal. This second round was a winner! He lapped it up and really liked the new taste. For a first-try, Ethan's performance was quite stellar. We were prepared for most of the food to end up on the floor, but we think he actually swallowed more than half of the cereal (1 tbl spoon with 50ml milk).

Here he is after the feed. He looked very contented and pleased and was still continuing to bite and chew, so we gave him another spoon to nibble on!

The best thing about it was how satisfied he looked after this new meal. He went into a drowsy state, staring at his mobile - a look that we last saw when he was much younger and very full on milk. He's now sleeping... well... like a baby!

Chinese New Year Visits

This is Ethan's first Chinese New Year! We did a fair amount of visiting and spent lots of time with family over the holidays which was nice. Ethan had a couple of red shirts and this bright orange tie-dye one that makes him look very grown-up!

At U. Kenneth and A. Bee's he behaved himself very well and allowed his Uncle & Auntie to hold him for a while so we could grab this great picture. It's the first time they have seen Ethan since the moon yuet. He was small then but is not quite big for his age, weighing in at just over 7kg now. In the picture above, the toy "tape worm" next to Ethan is a measuring worm 60cm long, so you can see that he is quite "long" now!

Worm 2 - The Sequel

Here we are back at the ENT clinic where Ethan first came during the worm in ear incident. We are back because 2 days ago we noticed some spots of blood on Ethan's left ear--the same ear where they found the worm. With the memories of that incident fresh in our minds we were naturally concerned but as it was Chinese New Year we decided to use the antibiotics from the last visit until we were able to see our ENT doc today. Fortunately, there was no infection or damage to his ear, and turned out to be a case of long and adventurous fingernails! Phew! Click on "Ear Troubles" to see the collection of posts about his last ear saga.

Sydney Aquarium

We're back from our Sydney trip - our first overseas holiday as a family with Ethan! (not counting the short Thailand mission trip we took him on last year). On one of the days we went to Darling Harbour and visited the Sydney Aquarium. We remembered how much Ethan enjoyed Sentosa's Underwater World so we took him to see this place.

At one spot, a seal decided to come up the ramp and pose with Ethan!

The surrounding area is quite lovely. It was a sunny yet not-too-hot day and we enjoyed the bay views. Ethan and Daddy often wore their matching hats with printed nams "Ethan" and "Ivan" given to us by church friends Norman & Janet. It was perfect for Ethan as it shielded his eyes from the harsh Aussie sun.

After a tiring day walking around we settled into the Lindt Cafe for refreshment and Ethan's lunch by the bay.

This Little Pig Went To The Market

Ethan went to the wet Market for the very first time a few weeks ago when we had A Mary, U Abu & the family over for a poolside bbq. He helped mummy & daddy pick the freshest prawns and was fascinated by the swift work of the butcher on the kampong chicken!

Bath Moods with Shorter Hair

As Ethan gets older, his mood at bath time is changing. He's always enjoyed baths, but now he's more active and kicks around often splashing me a lot during the bath. Now he's also strong enough for me to sit him up which makes scrubbing his back a lot easier. And the great thing is that after bath and while he's being changed, he cries less. He loves being wrapped in his towel after his hot onsen!


He's thinking how nice it would be one day to go to a real onsen in Japan. Maybe one of those outdoor ones with the steam rising above the snow!

Have you noticed that Ethan's hair looks neater now? That's because he had his first haircut last week. We couldn't take pictures as it took both Mummy and Daddy to pull it off. Mummy sat him on the bathroom counter-top with his feet in the sink while Daddy trimmed his sides and top. Even more handsome than usual!

My First Holiday

It seems like every day is a holiday for our little baby. It's all play in the land of mummy's milk of jack-in-the-box bunny. Still, Ethan had his first official holiday using his passport for the first time when we went up to KL for a 3 generation holiday. Here's our first dinner all together. If you zoom in on the larger photo you can see Ethan sleepily peering at the camera with one eye!

It was a special trip not only because it was Ethan's first overseas trip but the first time U. Adrian and A. Ruth got to see their first and favourite nephew (Ruth is Renata's sister - they live in Sydney). We told Ethan to behave well and endear himself to his uncle and auntie so that he would spur them on "toward love and good works" (Heb 10:24 heavily out of context). We don't know if it worked or not, but the 3 of them sure got along well!

Of course we all had a great time together, catching up and eating together. Ivan squeezed in a meeting with ministry people in KL, and we also met Martin for 2 good dinners. No photos of all that, just this lovely breakfast in the morning.

Overall, Ethan was a good traveller and though we had to plan our schedule around his feeds and needs, he brought everyone much joy with his smiles and laughter. We're trying to decide where to go for the next family holiday that's baby-friendly!

Just Like Dad

We're back online after a very nasty power supply burnt two of our hard drives. We lost some data but the MOST IMPORTANT things - Ethan's photos - had recently been backed up! Phew! Thank you God...

The other day we went to church and Ethan dressed just like Dad. Actually to be accurate, Ivan dressed Ethan then decided to dress himself like Mr Cuteness. Here they are looking like Father and Son! Ethan even made an appearance giving announcements at WEFC, illustrating how we all need to become more like our Heavenly Father.

Ethan's Good Natured Self

Since my last post about being home alone with Ethan he has been SUCH a good boy. He's been so good that I often cuddle him and tell him so. We think he's developing godly character! Right now, he's sitting on my lap while I type this blog entry. He's had his morning bottle feed, and like the last few days (almost a week) he's been taking the bottle without any fuss. He'll coo when he's content, laugh a lot when we sing to him, and cry when he's upset or at night when he's trying to sleep. As a whole this last week he hasn't cried for an extended period. We're wondering if Jesus was like this when he was a baby! (no crying he makes...)

Ethan's also been bottle-feeding from our grandparents succesfully, which helps Renata's transition back to work. All of this is much credit not only to His Cuteness' good nature but also Renata's patience and persistence!

We're a bit short on photos recently cos they're all in Renata's PC which has gone on the blink a few days ago. Our home PC's are 5-6 years old now so Ivan needs to shop for a new mainboard/CPU and do some surgery. In fact, the picture above was taken during our first family holiday up to KL recently, but we can't blog it yet cos all the pictures are stuck in Renata's PC.