Tiny Memories

It has been only 2 years since Ethan was born but we've already forgotten how small newborn babies are until you actually hold one again. Even then you normally hold them swaddled but getting Talia dressed and bathed is another matter. What a precious time!

Officially Singaporean

She is registered and coming home with us today! Soon she will need a passport to travel with us to exciting places...

Cutie Pie

My daughter has the most darling little mouth! She also has big grey eyes but she's sleeping almost all the time so you hardly get to view them. Double eyelids are also there which is 4 for 4 in the family! But her eyelashes are not as long as Ethan's and Daddy's - the boys in this family have the long eyelashes!

Family Photo

Poor Ethan has to be out of this photo so it's not "complete" without him! He was quite sad yesterday having to leave his mummy in the hospital, so this evening he stayed at home.

In Our Arms

Here is our little girl in Mummy's arms, but today Daddy got to hold her for a long time and we snuggled up and had a quick nap together. Very lovely and precious!

Full View

Like many newborn babies, Talia tends to fall asleep during feeding times so we have opened up her blanket so she's not so warm and comfortable that she falls asleep. You can see her slim legs here which are skinnier that Ethan's when he was born!

First Day

Here are a couple more close-ups of our now 1 day old baby daughter.

Gadgets vs. Girls

Ethan took to Talia quite well all things considering, even patting her a little with our prompting! However he did think she was a bit over rated. His new toy was much more interesting! Conclusion: gadgets beats girls - hands down.

Special Day

It's not every day that you get to meet your sister for the first time so today is a very special day. Ethan was very well behaved though he missed Mummy so we are now at West Coast Park for a treat before going to see Mummy and Talia in the hospital. Talia is also looking forward to meet her brother. She has already packed a special present for Ethan in our bag today!

Love, Daddy

Dear Talia,

You didn't realize it at the time, but today your Daddy held you for the first time ever. You were so small but you looked at me with your big eyes. I heard them whisper, "I need you Daddy..." so I want you to know that I will be here.

You were cold today after your first bath and because the aircon was freezing! So while you laid down under the warm lamp Daddy warmed his hands in hot water and held your cold feet and hands! Soon you were toasty, and I wrapped you up tight so you would feel safe. You fell fast asleep on me after that. You must know this because one day you may feel you're too big to hold my hand or cuddle up close anymore.

Mummy loves you and cares for you so very much and so very well! Daddy's love looks different but is just as strong and big for you. As I held you today I felt that love growing stronger and stronger. Love in practise is like that. Add up Mummy's love and Daddy's love and multiply it by a gazillion and that is an idea of our Heavenly Father's love for you sweetie. I will love you and show you more as we go along. It's just your first day, but there are many wonderful things like this I want you to experience. Are you ready?

Love, Daddy.

Thanksgiving

Thanks for the prayers and love you have shown. Renata and Talia are resting well. Ethan will see his baby sister tomorrow for the first time! Visits in the hospital for family only please. Thank you!

Talia's Born!

2.525kg and 51cm long at 5.11pm - healthy and already latched on and feeding well!

Warm Bed

Our little girl's bed is being pre-warmed for her welcome into the world. Renata is now 9cm so that will be very soon!

Contractions

The spikes on the right are Renata's contractions We can see them getting stronger (amplitude), longer and more frequent. The urge to "push" is increasing along with the pain and our gynaecologist is on the way! Renata is 6-7cm dilated so looks like Talia will be here before dinner!

Water Burst

Last time when the water broke it was really messy and lots of laundry had to be changed. This time one of the doctors came in to gently break the water bag so it was all done very neatly. No pictures of that!! We are at 5cm now...

Heavenly Bliss

The epidural is in and it all went well. The doctor said Renata was shallow, not referring to her character but the depth of the spinal cavity from the skin! Various medications and blood pressure checks are going on now... Mummy is all relaxed and ready to snooze. Talia should be here in a few hours!

Daytime Differences

Having a baby in the daytime sure feels different than going in at 3am like we did with Ethan. Last time it was like a secret mission or covert operation cos it was all dark and hardly anyone was around. Now it is bustling and Renata even gets served lunch! (wonder if they will charge us extra for the lunch?) Not being sleepy is good too cos Daddy is awake this time!

Easy Does It

This giving birth stuff looks easy... At least Renata makes it look easy! See how relaxed she is, settling in for a lunchtime nap. She scrunches her face a little when the contractions come... Ivan would probably be squealing like a little girl if it was him.

Talia's Heartbeat

She sounds strong and well! The first doctor is checking her out. Talia's head is low but it's still early hours...

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!

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!

Chloe or Talia?

She will turn Ethan's World upside down... and probably move it a new domain name too! We thought her name would be Chloe but now we also like Talia, and here's her ultrasound. In the beginning you can see her spine then after a few seconds look out for her head. You can make out her eyes and face and even her hand and individual fingers!