Brunch Date - No Ethan!

We left Ethan with Grandma and Grandpa to enjoy an anniversary brunch ALONE together! We tried not to talk about Ethan but had to keep reminding ourselves. Here we are at lovely P.S. Cafe in Dempsey Rd. It's our second time here, the first being with family, and the review is the same - Great food, great lush forest ambience, sub-standard ambivalent service. But we enjoyed our couple time and the super movie afterwards... Ratatouille!

Birthday Number One

Ethan had his first birthday which was a family affair at Grandma's and Grandpa's accompanied by popiah and a "Dog" birthday cake. Unfortunately he was a bit under the weather and rather moody that afternoon so we didn't get good photo shots.

Of course, Ethan didn't really understand all that was going on and didn't even know that he was getting so many wonderful presents. He did like cousin Heather showing him how to use A. May Nah's notebook though...

Happy Birthday Ethan! You've been a wonderful blessing to us and we love you so very very much... XXXOO, Mum & Dad.

Almost One

Tomorrow Ethan turns one year old! It's time for reminiscing so I was digging thru the old photo folders and found this cute one which I hadn't posted. Ethan was 9 months old and had gotten an inhaler from the doctor. He absolutely loved using it and was fascinated by the whole thing.

Feeding Myself

Ethan is gradually getting better at feeding himself, but sometimes he just likes to play like he's doing with these tamago biscuit balls. These are the yummy Japanese egg flavoured ones. Thankfully they're in his suction bowl which is why he can't manage to pull it off and fling them all about.

Our Anniversary!

Today is our third wedding anniversary! I called Renata this afternoon to tell her that I was extremely pleased to have married such a wonderful wife. Quite a good catch if I do say so myself! It was a rather ordinary day with us rushing to work, then me rushing back to take care of Ethan while Renata went to teach a class at church. Thus marks our 3 years together, and though today was "ordinary", there has been everything wonderful about having a companion who shares your passions in life and who strives to be supportive and sacrificial.

my favourite pic from our wedding album

In just a few more days Ethan will turn 1, which will be quite a celebration for the family! What an action-packed last few years getting married, being in ministry, travelling to so many places, having a wonderful baby boy, and seeing God do so many fantastic things. Really nothing ordinary at all.

Intrepid Explorer

Ethan seems to be getting stronger, more daring, and more curious in his exploring every day. He loves to just crawl about the house then pull himself to his feet to peer at anything he finds interesting - which is everything when you're an intrepid baby explorer. He always looks like he is concentrating very hard when examining items, then he looks very pleased with himself after having discovered something new. Really just like Daddy!

You Got Rhythm Baby

We try not to play baby music all the time. Ethan loves that genre, but being introduced to other types and more complex rhythms is good for him too. Everyone knows about Beethoven for babies but we hardly play classical music for him either. Mummy prefers a bit of jazz for Ethan, and lately this particular CD is one of his favourites. He never fails to "dance" by bobbing up and down and moving his head when the songs comes on. So cute! And his rhythm is quite good too... it's utterly adorable!

Baby French Toast

Sunday afternoons hold wonderful things. Ivan came back early and went for a bike ride, while Ethan woke up to Mummy's baby french toast. It sure was yummy!

This is a great finger food for Ethan to feed himself with and practice picking up food and chewing with the few teeth he has. Daddy likes it cos it's clean and neat and smells and looks great too! Thanks Mummy, for such wonderful baby food you make... Ethan sure loves it.

Crawly Crawly

I suddenly realized that I haven't taken any videos of Ethan crawling around yet! He's so cute padding around with his little hands slapping the floor and we must remember these times as soon he'll be walking about. This clip has nothing but him investigating things and crawling around... very cute, but the kind of thing only parents watch over and over again!

Brush Your Teeth

Ethan now brushes his teeth twice a day - all 3 of them! He has two on the bottom and 1 peeking out at the top so Mummy's been regularly saying "brush your teeth" as she rubs them with this little slide-on-the-finger baby toothbrush we got. Ethan loves it! He knows when the toothbrush is coming and opens his mouth for us to look inside.

Boat People

Our friend Sharon from TTC days came over for afternoon tea and so we can take our boys swimming. Asher is nearly 2 and was very good in the pool and in his boat... He was propelling himself quite speedily across the water!

Ethan is of course more dependant on Daddy when in the pool, and he too had a grand time being tugged around in his boat. He can't reach out of it to paddle like Asher though!

After the big pool, we went into the baby pool where we found out for the first time that Ethan can stand all by himself while holding onto the edge. The boys had a grand time so we left while everyone was still happy and went upstairs for a hot shower.

Ivan made "baby french toast" for the boys and crepes with "honey lemon" drink variants for the adults. Asher liked the iced honey lemon drink so much he didn't want to give it up though it was actually mummy's!

Baby French Toast (safe for babies)
Make batter using 45ml formula, 1 egg yolk, 1 tbl spoon plain flour. Cut off edges from bread slices and cook in toaster over or pan-fry on a non-stick pan without oil. Note there is no butter, sugar, or salt. You may add appropriate mashed fruit.

Orange Butter Crepes with Rum
(today's was a rush job with no orange peel and no ice-cream)

Finger Foods

After weeks of patient trial & error, Ethan is now getting the hang of feeding himself with finger foods. Here is the Hungry One after a long afternoon of crawling and inspecting his home. He even understands when we tell him to "use your teeth!" to bite at the biscuit! We still have some way to go on finger food development though.....Ethan still needs to learn to let go of his biscuit at the end! At present he ends up clutching a gooey mess of wet biscuit which he tries to put into his mouth but forgets to let go of!

But that's a minor detail to the overall joy of having acquired the skill of being able to feed oneself -- and here he is looking very pleased with himself!

Vertical Joys

Ethan is slowly getting steadier and stronger in pulling himself up to a standing position after a few weeks' practice -- and here he is beaming and feeling pleased with himself for the new perpective on the world!

Standing vertically is one of the joys of being human and our little boy is looking less like a baby and more like a toddler each day. It's been a joy to see him slowly gain more and more control of his movements & mobility, getting steadier and more confident in balancing and venturing further to explore the facinating world around him.

Cousins

Dinner the other night was at Ka Soh Chinese Restaurant and Ethan had a grand time with Emma, his cousin. At first, Ethan tried to pull on her dress where little girl's dresses shouldn't normally be pulled! Emma thought it was all very funny and was very good to her little cousin.

After dinner they went to play with the mirrors. They're both standing on a chair so they can see themselves in the mirror. You can see in the picture above how much taller Emma is. Funny how Ethan's head looks bigger than her's though.... All in all, a grand family outing and funny-face fun with cousins!

Sleep Kit

Sleep is an essential part of a baby's life (and Mummy & Daddy's too!). So we are really glad that the hard work on Ethan's sleep routine seems to be paying off! He's getting a little easier to put to sleep/nap now and here he is wanting to show you his Sleep Kit -- just a few items in our arsenal of baby equipment that we find useful in calming and getting him to bed -- pacifier, nappy blanket & his favourite rubber sea urchin which lights up and is a fun (altho somewhat stimulating toy at night) that makes bed a happy place to be!

Some people have asked how the Baby Contest earlier went -- and we have to say that Ethan didn't make it to the Finals after all. It seems their criteria was more on the babies' developmental stage and as our Bubs is a little of a heavyweight in his category, he's actually taken to crawling a little later than many babies his age. We had a fun experience though, and to us Ethan will always be a Wonderful Breastfed Baby!