Sunday Schedule

We're going to church today! Daddy got up early to bathe Ethan and get him ready. Daddy left first, and Mummy and Ethan will come for the later service at 11am. He's dressed in his Sunday best, but needed a few more minutes of shut-eye before making the trip to Woodlands. Here he is waking up and getting ready to worship God in His sanctuary.

Step 1: Stretch and Ready to Rise

Step 2: Relax and Roll Over

Step 3: Smiles and ready to worship the Lord!

First Rainbow

Today Ethan saw his first rainbow, and what an amazing rainbow it was! God made this beautiful one after a sudden downpour. We took these photos outside our dining room window. The rainbow was so bright, it looked like you could slide down it! God sure has wonderful promises in store for you Ethan...

New Office Staff

Ethan is a hit at the WEFC church office. This is the first time Aggie got to hold him and she sure is pleased! Geok Hua looks ready to show him the ropes around the office too. Mummy and Ethan accompanied Daddy in the morning today and now we are off for lunch and dinner at Grandmas.

1st Passport

Ethan is 2 months old today and is now the proud holder of a new Singapore biometric passport! He is still too small for them to take his thumbprint,but is looking forward to our first family holiday sometime soon...any suggestions?!

Baby Toys

Ethan has been learning how to play with his toys! Here he is at 5.5 weeks old looking at his toy rabbit and ball, and at 8 weeks with his baby gym. Dad has since learned that when Ethan looks away, it's not because he has a short attention span but because he's over stimulated. All those sights and sounds are overloading him cos he's taking in so many new sensations!

Kani Ramen

Both of us love ramen, but only the good stuff after having eaten the real delicious stuff in Japan. Unfortunately most ramen places in Singapore (like coffee in most of our cafes) don't do it properly so you end up thinking ramen is nothing special. Some of the best ramen can be had in Singapore by buying the fresh packed ramen from places like Meidya and adding your own toppings. We usually get a good brand of miso ramen and add pork slices, but tonight we had king crab ramen topped with chives, soft-boiled egg (the yolk must be runny inside the egg), and garlic prawns. Yummy...

As usual, Ivan used lots of garlic, but Ethan still drank his milk and doesn't seem too worse for wear!

Sick Week

We're coming to the end of a "sick week" for Mum and Dad. First Ivan got the flu bug, then passed it to Renata who had a mild fever. Fortunately, Ethan never caught it. A few people told us that babies have natural antibodies, not just from the breastmilk but also antibodies of their own so they rarely get sick. To be on the safe side, Renata has taken to wearing a mask while feeding Ethan so as not to cough on him as they are sharing close-quarters for a long time during the feed. The first time she wore it, he gave her a funny, "Are you mummy?" look!

Ivan's also been trying to take it easy this week so he can recover from the flu, and it's almost all gone now. One of the favourite huddle positions for father and son is now this one which both have perfected on any available sofa, including this one and grandma and grandpa's place.

Ethan is sleeping quite well. He achieved a personal best last night, dozing 7 hours between feeds and waking up just before 7am for the sunrise.

A Busy Day

Ethan loves checking out new places and the newly developed IMM is one of them. Ethan's accompanying his parents to a Hong Kong street food cafe. He had a busy day today having had lunch with the WEFC Missions committee then showed up at the BRMC Mums and Babes talk in the afternoon.

Bath Time for the Big Boy

Ethan now at 8 weeks, 5.2 kg

Ethan's grown so much that some people say they wouldn't have been able to recognize him having seen his photos when he was just 2 weeks old. Below is a picture of one of first few baths at home. Yes it's the same bathtub but when he first bathed in it, he could fit in using just the breadth of it!

Ethan at 1 week. Birth weight was 2.62kg

Our hi-tech Oregon Scientific weighing scale at home is courtesy of DBS Credit Card points! This is how Daddy weighs Ethan now and then.

Giving Ethan A-Weigh

Chubby Lubby Baby

Ethan is just shy of 2 months old and he has become quite "solid" already at 5.1 kg - double his birth weight. All of Mum's milk is definitely going somewhere. He looks quite different from his first 1-2 weeks birth photos, and is starting to outgrow some of his small mittens and booties already. See those strong arms and legs?

Some people have summer vacation homes - Ethan has 2... one at each Grandparents house. This one is the new "Lubby Baby" cot we got at Carrefour as the l'il bub needed a safe place to sleep. It looks exactly like the close to $300 Graco cot, but cost us only $108 with that comfy mattress. Ethan knows a good buy when he sleeps on one, and is already putting it to good use.

It feels like Ethan has grown up and changed so much already! This is his photo from only 7 weeks ago when he was tiny newborn. Sniff sniff...

Weekend Warriors

Renata's team mates at the Singapore Kendo Club are busy preparing for the upcoming World Championships next month so she went to support them at training and give Ethan an early taste of the arenaline rush from a good fight!

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!)

Baby Aerobics!

Ethan's first video on his own blog! Check out how active our little boy can be at only 3 weeks.

All Smiles

Now that the mystery of the painful ear has been solved Ethan is back to his usual self and even flashed us a sustained smile (?) while enjoying his morning bath today!

He is now 3 weeks old and its been fascinating watching him grow. He's noticeably heavier and definitely longer (or taller?!) now -- been getting harder to swaddle him! Must be all the powerful confinement food that he has been getting via Mummy!

Cleaned Out

At the ENT clinic today, Ethan was given a clean bill of health. Dr. Lynn Lim is a pediatric ENT specialist. She took a look and said that Ethan's ear drum was not perforated, just a bit scratched from the horrible worm that was in his ear (see previous post!). They suctioned out his ear which caused more wailing due to the loud sound it makes and we took him home.

As for the worm, they're not sure whether it's even a worm or some kind of larvae. The nasty bug is being sent to parisitology where they can hopefully tell us what it is and how it got into poor Ethan's ear.

The Mystery of the Painful Ear

Poor little Ethan... He was so happy last night when I fed him but this morning he was getting cranky and in the afternoon he was sleeping and bawling in 30-60 min intervals. Because of this Renata only managed to eat lunch at 5pm, and had noticed a few scratch marks on his left ear. She took a photo, emailed it to me and phoned. One three-party conference call with Dr Lim Ah Yeh, a few emails of the ear and Dad was flying back home (good to have fast bike) to check it out.

We had a closer look at home and I got in there with a flashlight. Things had worsened and peering into canal you can see from the picture above that poor Ethan's ear was a mess. It looked like an ear infection so we went to NUH where they have a children's A&E department. After a brief wait (they were very good) the medical officer scoped the ear amidst very loud protests that broke Mummy's heart. He then looked up with a puzzled expression and said, "I'm not sure if I'm seeing things...but I think there's a worm in your son's ear!"

The ENT specialist was called and in 15 min she came and took a look. Subsequent scopes by both MO and the specialist revealed no traces of the worm. Having a worm in one's ear, let alone the ear of a 2.5 week old baby is quite unheard of. Indeed Dr Lim Ah Yeh of Specialist Clinic said that in his 40+ years of practice he has pulled strange things like bees out of ears, but never a worm. Thus, the specialist said it was quite unlikely to be a worm. Instead, it was probably worm-like flakes of skin coming off due to a common ear infection of children. The MO not only looked embarrassed but even said that he was. After all, how silly he was to think there could have been a worm in a baby's ear...

Anyway the doctor said that they would flush his ear with antiobitics for the ear infection. If there was a worm this would also "drown the worm". If it were then to crawl out we were to kill it! Gasp... sounds like Aliens, but okay we'll do it and since we're at the hospital now let's do the first flushing here.

I held Ethan who had calmed down now that the nasty scope was no longer in his ear canal. We dropped 4 drops in his ear and 5 seconds later a WORM SWAM TO THE SURFACE! Even the doctors were amazed! "There's a worm! A worm! Quick, give me the forceps!" The worm wriggled in the pool of antiobiotic fluid as the precision forceps deftly plucked it out of Ethan's ear. Everyone gasped in amazement while Ethan now looked completely peaceful.

We don't know yet what type of worm it was or how it got there. The doctors quickly took digital photos of it (I should have asked them for a copy there and then!) and soon a few other doctors and nurses came to see the worm that crawled out of this baby boy's ear. It must also be added that they praised his bravery for even a grown man would have cried out of pain if a worm to crawl into his ear.

So we're back home now. All bedsheets, linens, clothing and car-set liners are soaking in antiseptic. Ethan has completely tired himself out and is sleeping. We'll be flushing his ear again soon, and watching in case more worms swim out. Tomorrow at 9am we'll be going into the hospital again where the ENT Clinic has the full equipment to do a detailed microscopic examination of his ear. We'll need to confirm there are no more worms, and hopefully find out where the worms came from.

Staying Up Late...

I stayed up tonight to do the first late night feed with some expressed milk. This was one of the best feeds I've managed to give Ethan. He drank well, burped quickly mid-way, finished off his mid-night snack and promptly fell asleep on my chest as I sat back and continued to pat those last gas bubbles away. It is indeed amazing to see this little one so perfectly formed (knit in his mother's womb no less) yet still so helpless and completely dependant on me.

Since I'm up, I'm also working on my sermon this weekend on Psalm 42 - what to do when we're feeling downcast and depressed. Ethan is peacefully back to sleep so I shall plod on a little longer before my own snooze time...

Ivan

Burping Better

I think we're getting the burping problem down! We can especially tell if there's a "gas problem" by the shape of his little tummy. A few different burping positions and some patience gets the work done. It sure pays to spend good time burping so that he sleeps better and is happier in the long run. Sleepy boy is very happy today in Grandma's (Por Por) arms at lunch time just now.

Ethan's coming to 3 weeks old now... We can see his facial features changing slightly and his limbs are growing too. So glad we took many photos in his first few weeks so we can remember these fast changing times.

Keeping the Home Clean

Ivan's power supply in his PC died an early death, so he used the opportunity to gut the 4 year old innards and put everything in a new case. Renata almost always takes pictures when Ivan plays with his boys toys. You can imagine how dusty PCs get, so this was a good way to make sure everything is clean. Some hidden shelves behind our desk and cable management system means that there are ZERO cables or wires on the floor. Our two slim-line PCs now sit behind our LCD monitors to keep things as dust-free as possible. This is important cos Ethan's cot will be moved into this room soon and it will become both a baby room and a study. Only 2 bedrooms in our cute l'il home now!

Saturday Food

On weekdays we get a food delivery service which is Chinese and Nonya food. We've never eaten so much rice before! So on the weekends we try to have some other genres. Ivan scrounged the fridge and came up with this for a lovely couple time at home while Ethan was sleeping.

You too can have yummy confinement food! Grill portobello mushroom with olive oil, salt and pepper in the "gills". Melt cheese and top with bacon bits. Serve alongside spaghetti aglio olio with bacon, garlic, pepper flakes, basil, and parsley. The side vegetables are carrots (pre-steamed) and snow peas stir-fred with a touch of mirin. Garnish with parsley.

Burp - Sun - Bloat - Snooze

This is what Ethan's 2 week old life consists of right now... can you see his little tummy is slightly bloated? He usually has a strong chest and slim waist (from Dad perhaps?) but he's quite bloated so has been taking smaller feeds and waking up more frequently. He's not upset so its not cholic but we can't get all that wind out... tips anyone? Last night he woke up 3 times to feed cos of this so poor Mum is very tired. Dad amazingly slept through every single one of them -special sleeping gift of his!

Burp Bonanza

Urrrrpp! Ethan seems to be getting more wind recently so we have to be more conscientous at burping him. Otherwise he quickly wakes up and gets irritable. After a good feed from Mummy he loves to get burped by Dad. He used like the sling-over-the-shoulder position but he seems to prefer resting on Dad's chest. He promptly fell asleep soon after this photo was taken and is now sunning himself again in his favourite place in the whole world... his bed. Nothing like a good snooze after a good meal.

A Rushed Bath

Silly me, got changed and almost left the house today and forgot to bathe my son! As a result, I think he sensed I was rushing and fussed a bit more than usual. He usually looooves bath time with Dad, but cried more than usual today. He was whimpering most of the time, but looks happy in the pic below cos he loves the camera!