Talia is Coming

The name Talia (tal-yuh) is a Hebraic contraction of "dew" and the name of God, thus meaning "dew of Heaven". In Jewish tradition, dew is gentle and ever-present thus representing God's kindness. We thought this is a wonderful meaning which we hope is expressed in Talia's life as she grows up.

This Talia is about to descend upon us very soon. Renata is having minor contractions already. Here she is getting hooked up to a machine that measures Talia's heartbeats and detects any contractions. Look what a nice picture Renata drew with her uterus!

First Lanterns!

Ethan enjoyed his first lanterns this year during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He had a choice of a Snoopy Lantern with red and blue LED lights that Daddy bought or a bright blue SpongeBob one that Uncle Roy gave him!

Ethan was fascinated by the lights and held onto his lantern very well -- but I think what he probably enjoyed most of all was the treat of having a nice evening walk with Mummy & Daddy at a time that is usually a little past his bedtime!

Playground Escapades

We have a lovely playground just downstairs now. Five floors and two minutes walk gets us here. Ethan is not that adventurous though and plays it quite safe which makes it easy to watch over him.

Just Like Daddy

We try not to disturb Ethan when he's focussed on a task at hand because he really concentrates on it... often he can't hear you when his mind is occupied anyway. We checked with Grandma who says that Ivan was exactly the same when young! So Ethan is just like Daddy! His facial expression when concentrating is also just like Daddy!

Relishing this Birthday

We are at Relish in Cluny Court enjoying gourmet burgers and a great Belgium pale ale! Ethan is only having water though! This morning he was complaining about having to stop what he was doing to get changed until Mummy said, "We're going out!" Then he quickly changed his clothes cos he always loves going out!


He walked into the restaurant, saw grandpa and grandma and immediately said: Yeh Yeh, Ah Mah! He sure knows how to butter them up. Mister Ethan was very well behaved all through lunch and entertained all of us!

Auntie Mei got Ethan these wonderful stacking boxes - brilliant in their simplicity and Ethan enjoyed them a long time after the meal was over. In fact, the whole lunch was her idea and her treat! Presents also included a bumble-bee outfit which I'm sure will appear on the blog soon!

Ethan's World Has Moved!

http://www.ethantalia.info/

Exactly 2 years old, Ethan's World has moved. Our dear sweet boy is making space in both his room and in his blog for his new little sister coming very soon... http://www.ethantalia.info/

The birth news and Talia's baby photos will be posted here when she arrives!

MP3 Fan

Ethan loves listening to this MP3 player lying around. The earphones are too big for him so he will hold them to his ears like this. This toddler just loves music!

HFMD

About 4 weeks ago, we noticed Ethan having a couple of ulcers in his mouth and 2 small rashes on his chest. Ordinarily this wouldn't have bothered us except that just a few days before, one of Ethan's toddler buddies had just been diagnosed with Hand Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) which had been on the rise! So we went to a nearby doctor and he said that it did look like a classic case of the disease.

So for the next 2 weeks, we had to stay at home and quarantined from all of Ethan's young friends. Every day, we checked Ethan for further signs of HFMD but apart from a few more spots on his legs, he never really broke out with the major symptoms like fever, blistery rashes, painful ulcers or loss of appetite.

In fact, as you can see here, he was quite his usual cheery self throughout the 2 weeks and his voracious appetite never really did wane! We are pretty glad he caught only a very mild strain of the bug.... actually he's probably the only kid we know of who actually put on weight during his bout of HFMD with all the time he spent relaxing around the house while being quarantined!

A Big Move for a Little Boy

You may have been wondering why Ethan's World has been taking a break lately -- well, the reason is that we have been very busy packing and moving these last few months! Despite his tender age, Ethan has been very helpful in the tough work of relocation. First, we had to measure our furniture to make sure they would fit in the new place......

Then all our belongings had to be packed away in boxes.....
After that came the hard work of transporting our stuff to the new place and making a few trips to Ikea to get a few home improvements to make our place a comfortable home.......
All that was tough work for a toddler and we are glad Ethan has adjusted well to his new home. Here he is getting a well-deserved sleep for doing so well in our Big Move!

Cousins!

Aunty Ruth visited Singapore for the first time with Josie last week and although Ethan took a while to warm up to Aunty Ruth and his new cousin (now 6 months), they soon became good mates with Ethan imitating the sounds Josie was making and joining her in crawling around! We're glad he got on well with her and he sure looks like he will be a good big brother to his new sister when she comes in a couple of months!

Say Cheese!

We had friends over for dinner last night and Erny brought the coolest door gift - a Fisher Price tricycle that Jarred has outgrown. Gosh, I sure get excited over different things nowadays! Ethan was just as excited as I was when he saw it, so we cycled around the house this morning and went to the park in the afternoon. Here he is posing for the camera. In fact he learned something new these past few days. I said "Say cheese!" and Ethan actually said "Chee.." and smiled! A second after that he would cock his head to one side and smile even more broadly. We don't know where he learned this from but it sure is cute. He knows we think it's cute cos he's tilting his head more and more until in this picture it's at 90 degrees!

Daddy's Home!

Daddy is back and brought Ethan to the Bt Timah Nature Reserve after dropping mummy off at work. There is a big tiger behind us and Ethan made growling sounds when he saw it. It's the same sound he answers with when we ask him "What sound does lion make?" so cute!

We hope Ethan will be as brave as a lion tonight cos it is mummy's turn to go away, though only for one night. Daddy needs to be brave too with Ethan alone tonight!

Daddy in East Timor

Ethan missed his daddy this week cos he was away in East Timor with a team of 4 people from church. Here are two of us with two other Timorese guys. We had a really rowdy jam session in their home the night before so we were good buddies by this time! Now daddy is on the way home using free WiFi in Bali and can't wait to hug Ethan....and mummy too of course! :)

Handphone Conversations

Ethan just loves to chat on the phone. He sometimes also chats using the remote control or the alarm clock, but he usually gets it right and is on the phone. It's a great way to get him to verbalize all that cute baby-speak, and he even intersperses it with a few SMS's!

Out For A Stroll

Look who is so grown up! Ethan was going out with his favourite Dad and it looks like he could take on the world in those sporty sneakers. But going out has its dangers too. Ethan recently got his first elbow scrape when he fell down on the concrete. A few days later and he scratched the scabs off ... all without any crying. What a toughie is our little son!