Wednesday 25 March 2009

I Love My Sister

After missing Ethan and Talia for one week while I was in East Timor, Daddy is now in Thailand on another trip. Well, I got to spend 2.5 days at home and we squeezed in many good times together. This precious photo was captured by Mummy showing the amazing sibling love between our two children. It really is sweet! Ethan really likes playing and interacting with Talia, and she will squeal and react to him when he comes close. Sniff sniff... Missing you Ethan and Talia...and you too Mummy!

Sunday 15 March 2009

Room Mates

Ethan has a new room mate! (and we have our room back!) We moved Talia's bed into Ethan's room on Thursday and so far Ethan has been thrilled to have company in his room. Here they are lying down together in the morning while Ethan gets changed. He was so excited he didnt get his pyjamas all the way off before copying Talia who was happily cooing while holding her toes......
It's really been a joy to have Ethan all this time but its really quite a new flavour of tingly warm feelings to see the 2 kids enjoying each other so much.

We decided to move Talia at this stage because :
a) She is already sleeping about 8 hours after her last night feed
b) New-room & Separation anxiety have not quite hit home for her yet!
Rooming together does mean that they are much more likely to wake each other up, so I have to try to get to them as swiftly as possibly to diffuse any crying before it escalates. However, we expect that along the way, they will learn to tune each other out except for the louder sounds made by each other. We have already seen Ethan sleep thru the (false) fire-alarms that tend to go off quite often around here!!

Thursday 26 February 2009

First Classmate Over to Play

Ethan had his first classmate over to play! Her name is Alina and of course we had her mummy, Adeline, over too. Adeline said, "Alina is always talking about Ethan saying Ethan did this and taught her that!" So we asked Ethan about her and he said, "Alina pretty girl!" That she is and they play really well together too!

It's very amusing watching the different way Ethan plays with Alina as compared to other boys. Our son is quite a gentle creature so he played very sweetly with Alina who is smaller than him (her head actually looks half the size of our chunky son's large one!). They took turns with various toys and even pushed each other around on the Pooh Aeroplane (see below!).

When there are other boys around it gets much rowdier. So even though we had two toddlers playing, it was actually quite peaceful and pleasant and all three adults had their fill of our "day off" lunch - Ivan's portobello mushrooms, asparagus wrapped with bacon, and fresh hamburger patties with rocket & baby spinach salad!

Monday 23 February 2009

Happy Birthday Daddy


Ethan's eyes widened and a broad smile brightened his face as he recognized the work of art that Mummy carefully slid out from the white envelope. "Daddy!" he exlaimed. "Ethan, this is the birthday card you made for Daddy yesterday," said Mummy. "Tell Daddy what you drew for him!"

"Circles...snakes!" Ethan said as he proudly pointed to various colourful circular squiggles and squiggly lines all over the page. He then proceeded to tell me many things about what he did on the paper which I did not understand, yet understood fully. Another thing I now understand is why parents go gah gah over their toddler's art work... a peculiar phenomena which I never appreciated to know. Ethan's birthday card to daddy will be laminated and displayed!

Thanks Ethan and thanks Mummy for facilitating the wonderful birthday card! :)

Friday 20 February 2009

Urban Escapes

Singapore holds lots of places for mini urban escapes and here we are enjoying one with the kids at the water park inside Vivo City. Talia is looking very pretty in her orange dress with her lovely slim Mummy! Ethan had a ball of a time as usual - fascinated with the water jets that jump around. They sure are fun to try to catch!

Thursday 19 February 2009

Daddy Dialogue

It is Thursday - the sabbath-day of rest, for Renata and I anyway. So today, as Ethan got ready for school we did our normal routine except for a few "work things" that Daddy left out. Ethan got his water bottle and his bag and he sang our school song. Daddy has been singing this special song to him and Ethan knows it very well now:

My school, my school, my school is so much fun
There's lots of things to do, and learning to do be done
I'm looking very smart, and feeling very glad
Carrying my bag... Gosh! I'm just like Dad!

Just outside the front door our dear son then exclaimed, "Forgot bag Daddy!" True enough, Daddy was not carrying his computer bag as he normally does because today is not a work day!

But this is not yet the best part... Today as we were walking to the classroom we sang our songs, talked about the teachers and the other kids and as we were climbing down a flight of stairs, Ethan paused, turned his head to look up to me and said (by himself with no prompting), "I love you Daddy!" He then continued to walk to school, serenely oblivious to the wonderful gift he had just bestowed with his daddy dialogue.

In fact, it's been quite a spectacular week for Daddy in Ethan's eyes and vice-versa. He's been talking about Daddy a lot, thanking Jesus for "wash the car with Daddy" and "drive with Daddy". At night he asks for special "Daddy come inside" time whenever I'm around. It's really very precious!

Sunday 15 February 2009

Dear Darling Daughter

It looks impressive here, but the truth is that I don't feed Talia that much... Daddy actually bottle fed Ethan more but now with a tougher schedule, two kids, and Mary who helps us at home it is a less common sight. Little Miss Talia also has to be walked, bobbed up and down and bottle-fed to get her sucking happily...which is a feat requiring quite a bit of patience which us guys don't usually have with crying kids. Thanks for filling in the gaps mummy!

Saturday 14 February 2009

Brother and Sister

Isn't that amazing? We worked and planned quite a lot to make Talia's entry into Ethan's life a smooth one - but we didn't know that our son would take such a liking to his sister! "Ethan, stand with Talia we'll take a picture" said Mummy. Ethan gladly moved to the side of the stroller, turned his shoulders 45 degrees and said, "Picture!" upon which Mummy snapped the pixels above.

The other day he came back from school and declared, "I wanna hold Talia!" which we allow him to do if he sits nicely on the couch and we rest her in his lap. "Wanna play Talia" is often heard when we set her down under her baby gym and Ethan loves joining in. Here they are during one of those times holding hands!

Friday 13 February 2009

Chinese New Year Celebrations

The lunar new year has come and gone. The calories have come but have not yet gone... as usual, the whole family enjoyed gathering together, catching up, and stuffing our faces with yummy food. Ethan can be seen quietly enjoying his cocoacino next to Daddy and appreciating the shiny espresso cup!

Talia was decked out in her finest cheongsam. Actually it's her only one which quite handily was given to us by a church friend just one week earlier. It's very "fitting" so we're quite sure that in 1 more month it won't fit her anymore.

Grandma and Grandpa looked especially pleased to have the kids and grandkids all here. Some are overseas, but now with Heather, Emma, Ethan and Talia there are 4 noisy rug rats to scamper around and bring smiles to all our faces... all except Uncle Martin however, who still seems quite fearful of the young'uns!

Monday 9 February 2009

A Great Day

It is only 8.30am but it is already a great day for Ethan and Talia. Last night our little girl slept 8 hours through the night and didn't cry this morning when she woke up! Ethan was very well behaved the whole morning tooto and when I took him to school he hugged the teachers and said, "Bye Daddy! See you later!" with a happy face. He sometimes says, "My school, my school... Fun!"

Finally, the picture above was taken a couple of days ago when Ethan wanted to play with Talia at her baby gym. They get along really well.

Ahhh...all parts of parenting should be like this.

Friday 30 January 2009

Siblings and Loving It

Our two kids - such joy they bring into our lives! And this together with such sleep deprivation, tiredness, sore eardrums, volumes of laundry, stunted social lives, and conversation that somehow almost always revolves around them. Precious, precious! We love you Ethan and Talia!

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Farewell FJR1300

I thought the day would not come but alas it has... I have bid farewell to my beloved Yamaha FJR1300 motorcycle. Ethan had his last playtimes on it and Daddy nearly cried with the thought of no longer riding any more. So what brought along this happening? It is the infamous Father Syndrome. Amazingly, Renata has always let me ride without too much fuss. Of course, both Ethan and Talia's grandparents have always encouraged me to give up this adrenaline pumping pursuit...

What finally got to me was not any close call or near accident (never had any in 6 years of riding), but the thought that if something did happen to me then Ethan would not remember me! All the time we had spent together would not yet be burned into his memory. He would only read this blog and hear Mummy say, "Your Daddy loved you very much Ethan, and you loved him too! But one day when he was riding this motorcycle which you loved to play on..." Oh, the first time the thought dropped into my head there were tears in my eyes!

"Ethan wanna ride motorbike!" is one of the sentences that my son is adept at. He is also very adept at riding my motorbike. He looks like quite a natural holding the handlebars and playing with all the gadgets. It's much more fun than a car cos he gets up real close and there are a lot more switches and gadgets on my bike that he can fiddle with!

When he was younger he would be scared when he saw me on the bike with my full-face helmet on because he didn't recognize me. Now he does recognize me. "Daddy motorbike!" he exclaims happily when he sees. Once he saw me out of the car window when I rode up next to him. Later that same day, in the car on the way home he said to Mummy, "Want the Daddy outside!" He wanted to see me on the motorbike again!

Below is the only video that we have of us playing on the bike together. We played on it together for a loooong time on that final day before the buyer came to pick it up. I finally peeled him off and both of us cried...

If you don't know (because I didn't know before this), giving up riding and leaving a large sport-tourer like this feels very much like "breaking up". I laughed at myself when I thought of this analogy, but it's true! It comes with bittersweet memories of the times you enjoyed together, the thrilling excitement and fun, and the hopes of the future that will never fulfilled (like riding to Thailand!). Now you know how understanding Renata is to put up with all of this from her hubby! :)

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Naughty Corner

We have just installed a Naughty Corner as our toddler is now firmly in his terrible two's and we think that he is ready for some firm disciplining! Here you can see it brand new and as yet unused without the tenant. I must take my hat off and thank Super Nanny for the valuable toddler lessons we have learned. On the same day I installed it (today) I used it TWO TIMES with Ethan and it worked Super Well just like on Super Nanny! When watching that reality TV show we often think, "Does it really work that well?" And now my answer is yes, it does...if you follow her rules!

WARNING!!! The rest of this lengthy narrative is
only of interest to parents of young children!

Preparation >> A few lessons we picked up: The naughty corner must be in a well-defined spot, so a sign helps the toddler know what it is. Daddy came up with this particular one and stuck it on the wall together with Mum's cushion idea so Ethan knows where he is supposed to stay. Also, it must be in a place in the home that is away from the fun and action but in line of sight so the parents can see when the toddler moves out of the naughty corner. There must also be an explanation to the toddler before it is used, what it is and how it works. All explanations and communications are to be done at their eye-level with a firm voice! Ha... looks easy on SuperNanny, but that's a lot of things to keep in your mind when you actually practise it.

4.45 PM >> Ethan wakes up, moves out of his room and eyeballs the new home addition with curiosity. Daddy sits on the floor next to the naughty corner with Ethan and explains it to him and surprisingly he understand perfectly well. When I say "naughty corner", Ethan squirms and looks away. He knows it's not a good thing. The preparation is done.

6.30 PM >> It's dinner time which has become increasingly difficult over the last few weeks. Ethan does not want to sit down and insists on playing with his current toy which is a common occurrence. After a few warnings it was naughty corner time. "You're going to the naughty corner because you didn't listen to Daddy and didn't sit down for dinner when I told you to." The requisite bawls and cries came from the corner. He stayed there longer than I thought he would... but after 1 minute he stood up and walked. Ever a student of Nanny JoJo, Daddy quickly picked him up and popped him back on the corner without saying anything. Ethan cried again and stayed there for another minute but just as I was about to end his naughty corner time he stood up again, so I repeated the silent reinforcement of the naughty corner and after 30 seconds went back to him. Throughout this his cries changed from defiant to a soft sob with more calmness. The time in the corner is definitely good for him to calm himself emotionally and stop the escalation!

"Ethan, you're in the naughty corner because you didn't listen to Daddy when I told you to sit down for dinner. Are you ready to come for dinner now?" Sob sob... "Say sorry to Daddy and you can come for dinner." He sobbed some more, seemingly unable to vocalize, but he hugged me so I picked him up. He was still a bit reluctant to sit in his high chair but this time he did and ate his dinner without crying or fuss! It was a big success but the better one was to come after dinner!

7.15 PM >> DInner was over and it was time for bath time. This has been an escalating difficulty with screams and yells over the last few weeks. Renata and I had discussed it and tonight was naughty corner time if it was to happen again. We were nervous that it being firm on discipline would make him more upset but we committed to it and tried. The results were amazing!

"Ethan you're in the naughty corner again because you didn't listen to Daddy when I told it was bath time." Again Ethan stayed for 1 minute but this time instead of standing up and walking off he tried scooting off while still seated. I stifled a chuckle at this testing of boundaries and firmly put him back on the naughty corner. Cries and sobs, but he stayed there for the whole 2.5 minutes, so I ended his naughty corner time and went to him...

"Ethan you're in the naughty corner because... " He interrupted me by looking upward, pointing at the sign and clearly voiced, "Naughty corner!" "Yes, Ethan, this is the naughty corner and you're here because you didn't listen to Daddy when I said it was bath time. Say sorry to Daddy and you can come for a bath now." No response. No cries, but no response. "Do you want to come for a bath or stay in the naughty corner?" Very clearly he said to me, "Naughty corner!" and sat down again!

Again I stopped myself from laughing and moved off. After some silent laughter in the kitchen I pretended to read the papers and ignore him and he stayed there for 2.5 minutes without moving this time! By the end of 2.5 minutes he was agitated. I went to him and explained again. "You are in the naughty corner because..." Ethan pointed upward toward the sign, "Naughty corner!" he said. "Yes, Ethan, you're in the naughty corner because you didn't listen to Daddy when he told you that it was bath time. Are you ready to say sorry and take your bath now?" Ethan hugged me and said, "Bath Daddy" and quietly walked into the bathroom with me!

Conclusion >> He was calm and though obedient, his spirit wasn't broken! This was wonderful! Bath time and the ensuing bed-time was a very calm and pleasant affair. So thank you, Super Nanny! It went so well and things were so calm that night that we went out for dinner and Mummy treated Daddy to a pork-knuckles and swiss rosti at Marche afterwards!

Monday 26 January 2009

First Day of School

It was a monumental day that required months of planning and preparation. It was Ethan's first day of school! What fun it would be! How many friends you meet, and how quickly Mummy would come back! All these were drummed into Ethan months ago and here we are on the big day.


Daddy walked Ethan to school, in what is to become our daily routine and composed a new song for Ethan:

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.
I'm looking very smart, and feeling very glad.
Carrying my bag - Gosh, I'm just like Dad!

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.

Everybody laughs and nobody cries,
Cos Mummy comes back in a twinkle of an eye!

My school, my school, my school is so much fun!
There's lots of things to do, and learning to be done.

There are friends to meet and games to play,
That's why we love to go to school every day!


We stayed a long time with Ethan on that first day before leaving. He enjoyed playing with all sorts of things, and unsurprisingly, particularly enjoyed the play-time food. Here he is playing with one of the cutest little girls in the class. Actually, he enjoyed the real food too, eating his own pau before scooting sideways to bite into the uneaten pau of the girl sitting next to him.

One of his friends there is Issac, who lives in the same place we do! So Daddy and Ethan often bump into Christina and Issac going to school. Ethan's born late in the year in September so is quite a bit smaller than most of the kids. Some of them are much faster at snatching toys than he is, but Ethan is too much of a peacemaker to know that this is happening.

Sunday 25 January 2009

The Important Things in Life

There are certain precious and poignant moments that remind you of the important things in life. Over the Christmas and New Year season, I took some leave to spend lazy time with the family and it was fantastic. We didn't go anywhere expensive - just spent days out with the family having fun together. We went on a very simple picnic that day, but the memories were priceless! The cool breeze bathed us, Ethan's laughter rang in my ears and I thought, "Yes, this is one of the truly important things in life."

We brought along some friends with their kids for the picnic that day. Sharon loves taking photos of babies, so she was having a grand time photographing Talia from head to toe!