Ashmar Farm Stay

One of the things we did while in Australia was to go on a farm stay. Ashmar Farm is near Gloucester, a small town about 2.5 hours north of Sydney. This was the first time on a farm for father and son! The cottage we stayed in was absolutely lovely. Ethan explored the whole house when we first got there and when we showed him his room (yes, he had his own room) he smiled and clapped his hands in approval!

The next day we all went for hay ride. Farmer Ian pulled us along in his tractor while we sat on bales of hay. Ethan was mesmerized with the views of huge open spaces and greenery all around.

There were all sorts of animals on the farm, including these parrots. Ethan was a bit scared of some of the animals, although he was fascinated by the newly hatched ducklings. Though he was a tad young for the full farm experience, it was wonderful memories for our little family.

The Great Outdoors

With the beautiful weather, some of the best times we had in Sydney recently was in the parks. We saw Ethan grow so much as he roamed freely and played with the wonderful toys in the Aussie greens.

Centennial Park

Sydney has so many beautiful parks and the famous and large Centennial Park was right next to where we stayed. Though it rained often, we let Ethan run around whenever he could. I think the large open spaces encouraged him to explore and romp around... always with Mummy's careful supervision of course!

Motorcyle Maniac

I only had to show Ethan for 15 seconds how to "ride" this motorbike in this mall in Sydney. At first he was more interested in the ignition that in the handlebars, but after I showed him where he was supposed to hold the bars, he took to it like a fish in water and did not want to stop!

Coogee Beach and Park

At Coogee Beach in Sydney we had a lovely breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa after which we played on the lovely grassy area near the beach. Sydney has many wonderful city parks with green grass and the weather was cool so Ethan had a wonderful time scampering around the grass where he could run and fall and not get hurt.

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!

Love That Helmet

After all the fun we've been having riding bicycles these last few weeks we spotted a toddler's helmet at Carrefour. It was only $13 and Ethan loved it when we put it on his head in the store. In fact, he will happily wear it around the house just doing other things, occassionally reaching up and patting his helmet.

Ethan has sure come a long way since not enjoying having hats on his head. He will wear hats and especially this helmet for a long time. We thought he looked extra sporty in it while flying his Pooh aeroplane.

Mr Explorer sure does love his new adventure gear. Pity he still can't try Daddy's motorbike with it though. Daddy is sure Ethan would love it...

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!

Sick

After the busy socializing of the Festive season, Ethan has caught a bug. He's had fever for 3-4 days and was clingy, crying a lot and very sensitive to sudden loud sounds. So it really was bad timing for us when they decided to test the fire alarms in our building last week! I guess it's tough when you can't really understand why you are feeling so awful.

It was also a tough week for Mummy who had to manage without Daddy, and it got a little worrying when he started to develop a rash after the fever! (just when we thought we were out of the woods!) Fortunately we had quite a lot of support from Grandparents & Church Friends who helped in little ways to get us through this period. We are also glad that it turned out to be a viral thing that seems to be quite common in young kids. I'm glad Ivan is coming back soon tho......was a rather lonely thing to have to pick up a kid who is burning with fever and looking at his glazed eyes in the wee hours of the night......

Just the 2 of Us

This New Year it was just the 2 of us again -- Daddy was away so Ethan gets Mummy all to himself this week! He's been quite a good boy just like Daddy told him to be before he left. Daddy will be proud of this little man of the house while he was away!

In the meantime, Ethan's been busy spending time socialising at Ah Mah & Yeh Yeh's New Year's Eve Party as well as exploring Suntec City with Por Por & Gong Gong on New Year Day. We discovered that his favourite was the photo booth where we had a screaming good time playing peek-a-boo with the booth curtains!

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?

File Manager

Ethan followed Mummy to the Office for a bit 2 weeks ago and enjoyed exploring a whole new place now that he is much surer on his feet! He particularly liked my filing cabinet and made a thorough inspection to make sure my filing was up to scratch!
The other highlight of his visit was a grand tour of Wesley Hall courtesy of Michael (also known as our Key Master). Here he is examining Michael's handphone with fierce intensity -- giving Mummy a few more moments of peace!