Brotherly Love

Ethan is giving his last hug to Talia while she is inside. Next time his mummy will be in the arms of another baby. Renata is having contractions at 10 min intervals so we're off to the hospital now! Pray for us!

McDonald's Mania

We are now having father-son bonding time in McDonalds on Farrer Rd. Daddy thought he would never be a McDonalds fan but has to admit that these guys really have it down to an art! The Happy Meal is just the right size and Daddy gets a decent cappucino. It's all perfect to keep us 2 occupied for an hour!

Careful on that Playground!

We discovered another way that Ethan is like his Daddy. Though he enjoys the playground he is quite careful and averse to climbing too high or things that seem 'dangerous'. Daddy remembers he was that way too when young and never did like to climb too high or swing too vigorously. So Ethan will wait till Daddy shows him how to do things in the playground before he attempts them, and sometimes need a bit of encouragement before undertaking the scarier things. Funny that Daddy loves fast motorbikes now...it must be a late developing thing that I somehow think Ethan will pick up too.

Ethan's motor-skills is rapidly improving now. Here he is in this video climbing the ladder with some help from Dad then enjoying the slides all by himself!

Our Techie Time

Here we are enjoying one of our techie times together. This is when Daddy takes pictures of the fun things we've been doing then plays photos or videos on his phone. Ethan lies down next to me and we watch together. We also enjoy searching YouTube for toddler videos! Ethan loves this and since he stays still next to Daddy for so long Daddy loves it too. "Let's look at pictures!" says Daddy waving his phone and Ethan smiles gleefully and clambers up onto the comfy bed!

Cooling Off

Maybe its just me being pregnant but this last week has been really HOT! Fortunately our sweaty little boy has his ways of cooling off in this sweltering heat. Here he is enjoying a cool swim in the nice pool at Ah-Mah's place....and it looks like he's not the only one enjoying the swim!

He also enjoys long and leisurely bubble-baths at Por Por's place where it's always a stuggle to extricate him from the bath......

And when he's stuck at home with me, we sometimes take a quick trip down to the Jacob Ballas Garden in the afternoon to cool off in the lush greenery of our favourite park! It's also a great place to celebrate the wonders of water play with other kids as well -- and that certainly takes all our minds off the hot weather!

Liao Yi Lin

We have chosen Talia's name and here it is... 廖 亦 霖

Similar to Ethan's name, we wanted to choose a Chinese name that had rich meaning but was also related to her English name. Her chinese name means "rain that refreshes, especially after a drought". As refreshing rain and dew, it is our hope that she will be a source of God's loving and refreshing kindness to whomever she meets!

In case the above Chinese text doesn't appear properly on your computer here it is as an image:

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!