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.
Friendly sea urchin only costs $1 so it's definitely made in China and perhaps has some unsafe substances in it with all the news reports going on nowadays. But gosh, it's near impossible to avoid all made-in-China items isn't it? Thus, we pray that there is no such thing as pink-dyed lead rubbery-stretchies... especially since Ethan loves "twanging" it with his two front teeth.
Daddy tries to make appropriate twanging sounds of varying pitch and volume depending on how hard Ethan pulls on it with his hands and how far he pulls it back with his teeth. This is elementary guitar theory going on here... together with some amplitude, frequency, and tension lessons. Dunno if Ethan is picking up anything from it yet.
We're especially enjoying the last couple of weeks with him. He's weaned, sleeping better, in a good mood, and we think he lost a bit of fat so he's looking that much more handsome! Don't tell him, but he was actually quite fat about a month ago. We didn't post any of the double-chin and puffy cheek pictures, and certainly not the tired-looking ones of all of us when he refused naps and woke up at night for a while...
Ethan's arms seem to be getting longer as he reaches out to explore even more of the world around him -- and we have had to put our baby lotions, tissues and baby powder further and further from the edge of the bed! He's been getting extra reach now that he can pull himself up to a kneeling position and is now able to turn on his Mozart mobile high up on his bed for some naptime entertainment.
Lunch was at the Soup Spoon downstairs. Ethan gobbled up his pumpkin and rice porridge (from Mum's Kitchen) even before Daddy sat down with his soup! A passer-by helped us take this nice photo.
A bit of baby-biscuit shopping, and 15 min later we were in the car heading home and Ethan was out like a light. He's still snoozing now after his grand day out. 
Ethan got his first introduction to books early on at around his 2nd month, but apart from biting on them (see "Eat This Book" posted on 17 Mar) he didn't quite take to them and his short attention span soon moved on to other toys. So we are really pleased that of late he has shown much more interest and real engagement with the books we read with him! He not only enjoys looking at the pictures but also loves turning the pages too!
blurred photo taken with one hand on moving bus while steadying wriggly baby
It's been a joy watching Ethan growing and learning how to do new things every other week. However with his greater awareness of the world around and a growing ability to control it, he has also acquired the ability to keep himself awake through sheer willpower (and the insatiable desire to play play play!) Being awake is just so much more fun than sleeping, and here he is 45 minutes after being put down for his nap and looking as bright as a lark!
Do share any sleep tips that have worked for you -- we would love to hear your suggestions!
He's just fallen asleep behind me about 1 hour after I first put him down -- Peace on Earth at last!!
It's been a few weeks since we've been swimming so last Sunday off we went to the pool. Ethan's taking to the water well, becoming a little more confident each time. On this occasion he splashed and kicked lots more as he's now much stronger. He got water all over his face doing this but didn't mind too much. I don't think he's ready to put his head under water any time soon though...
He seemed to like being in Daddy's arms more than being in his boat however. He kept trying to peer out and even climb out to get back into that lovely looking water! Very brave, but defintely not ready yet.
Of course, Ethan always loves being on Daddy's shoulders where he gets a fistful of hair as well as a whole new perspective on the world. We do this a lot when going out now cos Ethan can sit up better, but Daddy still needs to hold onto his shoulder or his torso for safety. 
Just over 3 months ago we figured that Ethan was allergic to milk -- after a reaction when we tried giving him formula. Interestingly his persistent rash also disappeared when Mummy stopped taking milk and dairy products as it seemed to be coming through the breastmilk too! Our doctor advised that we continue avoiding dairy products for 3 months to give Ethan's body a chance to develop further before trying again. Good advice...although that meant that Ethan had to have a Hypoallergenic formula (which tastes much less appealing than regular formula!) and that Mummy had to forego all manner of chocolates, ice-cream, a multitude of desserts as well as her favourite fix of teh-tarik!!
And 2 months ago, Ethan looked like this! It's amazing to look at these videos and see how he has developed and grown in this short period of time.
Ethan liked spending time with us too. Especially now at mealtimes since he sits in a highchair next to us and it really feels like a family affair! After dinner, he had a squealing good time in the restaurant being hoisted onto Daddy's shoulders!
Ethan's made it to the Semi-Finals of the Best Breastfed Baby Contest! It was held yesterday at IMM and was quite a babies galore with lots of babies, baby goods, anxious parents and for Ethan -- a few new friends! Here we are with new friend, Isaiah (10 mths) while waiting to be judged. He had to do a few simple tasks like grabbing various objects offered while Mummy had to answer some questions about his feeding details and development. Results will be out in 2 weeks if he makes it to the Finals -- fingers crossed!!
After coming home, Ethan had a real good afternoon sleep on his favourite place - Mummy and Daddy's Big Bed. Phew... it's tiring being this cute!
