Woodlands Scenic Tour

Daddy has been raving about the cheap n good food at Republic Poly, so Ethan and Mummy decided to check it out for themselves. We were pleasantly suprised at how nice and baby friendly it was with lots of access ramps and open spaces. We recommend the ayam bakar -generous servings with fresh fragrant sambal for just $2.80!

Food for Milk

Today for lunch we ate this! Ivan made this creation of baked penne with beef bolognese sauce topped with melted cheddar and parmesan cheese. The twist was using bunashimeji mushrooms for the sauce instead of the normall button ones and it turned out yummy!

Renata enjoyed it, and she sure needs to with all the output this milk bar has to make every day. Ethan regularly gulps down 120ml now, and last night slept for 6.5 hours. This means Renata is burning lots of calories producing all that milk, so she can now polish off 3 bowls of rice in one meal - more than Ivan!

Ethan's also just finished his lunch so we're going out today! Doesn't he look happy to see the world? Carrefours at Plaza Singapura and both Grandma's houses for now... Bye bye Ethan, have a great day!

Swedish Camouflage

We are in Ikea now outside the restaurant. Ethan's blending in with the other shopping carts! Perhaps we're supposed to leave him here and go in to eat...

First Day at WEFC

Today was Ethan's first day at Ivan's church - Woodlands EFC, but we were quite rushed and didn't get to take any pictures. So many nice Aunties and Uncles gave gifts to Ethan... he feels so loved already! But it was a rushed day cos Mummy and Daddy got free tickets to see Notre Dame de Paris at 3pm (it was very good). Ethan will be back next week!

Longest Sleep

Ethan just had his longest night time sleep ever! He was well behaved yesterday, and Mum took him for a walk to the nearby park all by themselves while Dad was at work. He was even well behaved at night and as you can see, he had a drink at Mum's Milk Bar at 1:10am then slept all the way until 6:30am when Dad's Drink Stop opened. He just now took 125ml from a bottle with Dad. Little Ethan is now 4.3kg at 6 weeks. Keep growing little fella - you'll be running around soon!

Pizza Lunch

Mummy just got a new phone so she can now make video calls with Ethan and we are celebrating with a pizza lunch. This way, Ivan wont have to miss out when Ethan says his 1st words!

Big Move

Now that Ethan is a big boy after passing his Full Month, it's time for him to have his own room and begin learning to sleep on his own. Although his bed has wheels on it, our corridor is a little too narrow for us to push it from our room to his. Once again Super Dad swung into action and swiftly dismantled the cot and reassembled it while Mummy fed and kept Ethan busy in the living room!


Ethan's room is now very comfortable and Daddy even fixed a built in night light that sits neatly at the bottom of the bed. Enjoy your new room Ethan!

Good Mood - Bad Mood

Ethan is so expressive. Here he is putting on two different faces with grandma... but he still looks cute even with the bad mood face!

Mystery Solved!

The mystery of the worm is solved! The doctors at NUH called us on Monday to tell us that the laboratory report states the 'worm' in Ethan's ear was actually the larvae of a fly. The picture above is not the actual infidel, but a similar one I found on the Internet. Ethan's persecutor was older cos it was longer, had dark spots, and lots of little legs.

Since it was a fly larvae, it seems that this was a one-in-a-million kind of accident where a fly landed on Ethan's ear, laid an egg, and the egg happened to drop inside and it grew until it became a larvae. When it started to get bigger and move around, it caused pain and secretions to come out of the ear. While this sounds quite horrible, it is actually good news. This means that it was not the result of contamination or human to human transmission, so there is no reason to fear a repeat occurrence.

It has been quite funny to hear the variety of postulated theories before the lab report came back - everything from wood-worm infected the cot, a human worm from the parents, infected car seats, and worm-from-apple dropped while Mum was taking a bite and holding Ethan sideways! I guess all were possible except the last one...

First Outing

We went on our first outing with Ethan on Sunday! Since he is now 1 month old, we told him that he is growing up and needs to see the outside world. We were also itching to take him somewhere. In the end we decided to check out the newly renovated Botanic Gardens' entrance and food court. You know how when you get a new toy, you suddenly notice 'everyone' has one too? Well, our eyes were opened to all the babies and the families everywhere, and there sure were a lot of them at Botanic Gardens.

We had a great time on our short excursion and Ethan behaved himself very well throughout our time. He woke up and cried a bit as we were finishing dinner, but it was outdoors which was a plus. The food court has great ambience and they play nice music, though incongruous with all the local fare. It needs a good pasta/pizza stall so next time we could come back with some wine!

Toys

Ethan is just starting to see things and appreciate toys. He sometimes looks at the pictures in his cot, and today looked at himself in a mirror. Here he is checking out a sqeaky rabbit who popped out of a box from George at WEFC. He had fun for a bit, but is now having a good wail over nothing in particular!

Moon Yuet Party

Ethan's 1 month party has come and gone and it was a great time! Big thanks to supporting friends and family, especially Mah Mah Pearl and friends who whipped up some great food.

Yeh Yeh & Mah Mah with the little one

We were worried Ethan would be cranky like he has been the last few days, but he was the perfect baby sleeping most of the time then waking up for good photo opportunities. In fact, many times we took photos while he was still sleeping in his hi-tech buggy which also proved popular among the guests!

Pek Ya and Wan Ling with their best maternal smiles

Ethan woke up for a quick snack. He didn't get to eat any of the adult food, but we had some expressed milk in a bottle so that others can try feeding him. Goo Ma had great fun feeding her little nephew. He quickly drank all the milk and was soon back to sleep again.

Goo Ma feeding Ethan for the first time

Wow, we got a ton of presents. We don't think Ethan will ever get more presents at one time ever again in his life! Pity he is too young to appreciate all the gifts. Our car was full of the gifts, and the bag was stuffed with ang-pows and cards. While packing the gifts in the car, a button inside one of the packages was pressed and "choo choo" sounds were heard. I think Daddy is going to play trains with Ethan soon!

It was an amazing haul

It was great to see some old friends and receive all the love from everyone. Thank you!!

Bath Time

Ethan's bathing, getting dressed, and getting ready for the world! A few more days and the 1 month confinement is over... Ethan will be seeing the big world outside our little apartment.

Tip-Toes

These last couple of days we have been walking on tip-toes around Ethan as he's been sleeping very lightly. He's fine at night but during the day he's awake lots and only sleeps very short amounts, so Mum has had to keep the milk bar open almost all day which makes her quite tired.

Mr. Fish floating in the pic is from this great musical mobile we got from Renata's church office. And the Smiling Worm (left) is a new toy from one of the ladies in Ivan's church. Very funny cos she gave it to him after he preached last Sunday and the closing illustration (for light at the end of the dark tunnel of depression and being downcast) was Ethan's worm in his ear! So our musical tapeworm toy will be a reminder of this milestone event. Everyone's been asking, but we still haven't heard what type of worm it was...

Fry-Day

Sundays has become fry-day for us, not only because after a ministry weekend it feels like Friday... it's also because we've been eating so much from the food delivery service from Monday to Friday and we need comfort food from our deep fryer. This week, it's been Japan-fest as Renata's parents brought the long forbidden (during pregnancy) sashimi for lunch on Saturday. Being inspired, Ivan prepared a tempura dinner on Sunday to celebrate the end of preparation and delivery of his message on Psalm 42, When Feeling Downcast (new church website coming online soon!)