We didn't think Ethan would take to hi-tech toys at such a young age, but he's been developing a deep attachment to techie toys like our computers and handphones...and we are quite amazed at the attention span he is able to give to these toys! So we have decided to give Ethan his very own handphone to play with. (Shh...don't tell him but it's actually Mummy's old handphone which still works well, has fun lights and even camera function but with SIM card removed.) I was amazed when a day later he had changed the wallpaper on the phone all by himself!
Canned tomatoes are easy to use for adult pasta, but I wanted to avoid the extra salt and had run out anyway. So in went some chopped cherry tomatoes and a tiny bit of sugar. The rich colour and consistency still required tomato paste though, which had some salt in it. It looked and smelled yummy.
The macaroni cooked in the meantime, and combining the two resulted in this army of macaroni bolognese. Unfortunately it has to be off to the freezer for this platoon, so Ethan will have to try his first pasta microwaved. Not exactly the choicest of options, but since al dente is too hard for him anyway I don't think it mattered too much.
After all that it was time for the taste-test. Not ours, but Ethans. Turns out that while he seems to like the pasta and the tomato sauce the beef (though as small as I could make it) took a bit of effort to chew as does the pasta. So he ate quite a bit slower than usual and seemed to get tired after all that chewing. Verdict: Partial success. Next time, more sauce and less meat!
For a very short period, none of the family needs glasses. We say very short, because with genes from us the next person likely to need them is Ethan!
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.
my favourite pic from our wedding album
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!
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.
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!
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.
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)
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!
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.
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!
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!
Ethan has started to stand and now at 11 months can hold onto things and stand for about a minute or so! He always looks very pleased with himself when he learns new things. You can't really see the pleased look cos of his pacifier, so I took it out and did this short video. It had to be stopped short cos he was reaching for the fan and actually grabbed it! 
Though both boys weren't at their cutest they did enjoy their day out in Vivo City and loved staring at the balloons we got for them. We lounged around in a coffee joint afterwards. Do you think the babies look alike? Cos people say Terence and Ivan look alike... someone even congratulated Terence thinking he was Ivan at our wedding 3 years ago.
Ethan loved lounging with his Dad after lunch. He thinks Dad looks very cool with sunglasses, but actually it's eye protection for 2 weeks after LASIK so that Ethan doesn't accidentally reach up and maul Daddy's eyes.
Ethan tries so hard to stay awake during the day even when he is very tired. The result is that he sometimes falls asleep sitting up in his cot then he slumps over and continues dozing! Here is one such funny picture... amazing he can still sleep in this strange pose.
Ethan had a bit of nappy rash today so he let him crawl around a bit without his nappies to get a good airing. But then we noticed he was leaking! Accck.... so he scooped him up and used the opportunity to put him on his potty trainer. Technically, he's too young for potty training now as bowel control only sets in much later, but he looked so comfortable sitting on his potty that we gave him a book to read! Look at him happily enjoying himself!
We have both been talking about getting LASIK done for some time and we took the plunge. Well, I took it first. Here I am immediately after the surgery on Thursday afternoon. My eyes were nearly shut cos they were a bit puffy and hard to keep open. The eye shield is to stop me from rubbing my eyes during my sleep in the first 24 hours as that's the most crucial time for healing. I also have to use some eye protection when playing with Ethan in the first 7 days of healing so I don't accidentally get whacked.
