McDonald's Mania

We are now having father-son bonding time in McDonalds on Farrer Rd. Daddy thought he would never be a McDonalds fan but has to admit that these guys really have it down to an art! The Happy Meal is just the right size and Daddy gets a decent cappucino. It's all perfect to keep us 2 occupied for an hour!

Careful on that Playground!

We discovered another way that Ethan is like his Daddy. Though he enjoys the playground he is quite careful and averse to climbing too high or things that seem 'dangerous'. Daddy remembers he was that way too when young and never did like to climb too high or swing too vigorously. So Ethan will wait till Daddy shows him how to do things in the playground before he attempts them, and sometimes need a bit of encouragement before undertaking the scarier things. Funny that Daddy loves fast motorbikes now...it must be a late developing thing that I somehow think Ethan will pick up too.

Ethan's motor-skills is rapidly improving now. Here he is in this video climbing the ladder with some help from Dad then enjoying the slides all by himself!

Our Techie Time

Here we are enjoying one of our techie times together. This is when Daddy takes pictures of the fun things we've been doing then plays photos or videos on his phone. Ethan lies down next to me and we watch together. We also enjoy searching YouTube for toddler videos! Ethan loves this and since he stays still next to Daddy for so long Daddy loves it too. "Let's look at pictures!" says Daddy waving his phone and Ethan smiles gleefully and clambers up onto the comfy bed!

Cooling Off

Maybe its just me being pregnant but this last week has been really HOT! Fortunately our sweaty little boy has his ways of cooling off in this sweltering heat. Here he is enjoying a cool swim in the nice pool at Ah-Mah's place....and it looks like he's not the only one enjoying the swim!

He also enjoys long and leisurely bubble-baths at Por Por's place where it's always a stuggle to extricate him from the bath......

And when he's stuck at home with me, we sometimes take a quick trip down to the Jacob Ballas Garden in the afternoon to cool off in the lush greenery of our favourite park! It's also a great place to celebrate the wonders of water play with other kids as well -- and that certainly takes all our minds off the hot weather!

Liao Yi Lin

We have chosen Talia's name and here it is... 廖 亦 霖

Similar to Ethan's name, we wanted to choose a Chinese name that had rich meaning but was also related to her English name. Her chinese name means "rain that refreshes, especially after a drought". As refreshing rain and dew, it is our hope that she will be a source of God's loving and refreshing kindness to whomever she meets!

In case the above Chinese text doesn't appear properly on your computer here it is as an image:

Talia is Coming

The name Talia (tal-yuh) is a Hebraic contraction of "dew" and the name of God, thus meaning "dew of Heaven". In Jewish tradition, dew is gentle and ever-present thus representing God's kindness. We thought this is a wonderful meaning which we hope is expressed in Talia's life as she grows up.

This Talia is about to descend upon us very soon. Renata is having minor contractions already. Here she is getting hooked up to a machine that measures Talia's heartbeats and detects any contractions. Look what a nice picture Renata drew with her uterus!

First Lanterns!

Ethan enjoyed his first lanterns this year during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He had a choice of a Snoopy Lantern with red and blue LED lights that Daddy bought or a bright blue SpongeBob one that Uncle Roy gave him!

Ethan was fascinated by the lights and held onto his lantern very well -- but I think what he probably enjoyed most of all was the treat of having a nice evening walk with Mummy & Daddy at a time that is usually a little past his bedtime!

Playground Escapades

We have a lovely playground just downstairs now. Five floors and two minutes walk gets us here. Ethan is not that adventurous though and plays it quite safe which makes it easy to watch over him.

Just Like Daddy

We try not to disturb Ethan when he's focussed on a task at hand because he really concentrates on it... often he can't hear you when his mind is occupied anyway. We checked with Grandma who says that Ivan was exactly the same when young! So Ethan is just like Daddy! His facial expression when concentrating is also just like Daddy!

Relishing this Birthday

We are at Relish in Cluny Court enjoying gourmet burgers and a great Belgium pale ale! Ethan is only having water though! This morning he was complaining about having to stop what he was doing to get changed until Mummy said, "We're going out!" Then he quickly changed his clothes cos he always loves going out!


He walked into the restaurant, saw grandpa and grandma and immediately said: Yeh Yeh, Ah Mah! He sure knows how to butter them up. Mister Ethan was very well behaved all through lunch and entertained all of us!

Auntie Mei got Ethan these wonderful stacking boxes - brilliant in their simplicity and Ethan enjoyed them a long time after the meal was over. In fact, the whole lunch was her idea and her treat! Presents also included a bumble-bee outfit which I'm sure will appear on the blog soon!

Ethan's World Has Moved!

http://www.ethantalia.info/

Exactly 2 years old, Ethan's World has moved. Our dear sweet boy is making space in both his room and in his blog for his new little sister coming very soon... http://www.ethantalia.info/

The birth news and Talia's baby photos will be posted here when she arrives!

MP3 Fan

Ethan loves listening to this MP3 player lying around. The earphones are too big for him so he will hold them to his ears like this. This toddler just loves music!

HFMD

About 4 weeks ago, we noticed Ethan having a couple of ulcers in his mouth and 2 small rashes on his chest. Ordinarily this wouldn't have bothered us except that just a few days before, one of Ethan's toddler buddies had just been diagnosed with Hand Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) which had been on the rise! So we went to a nearby doctor and he said that it did look like a classic case of the disease.

So for the next 2 weeks, we had to stay at home and quarantined from all of Ethan's young friends. Every day, we checked Ethan for further signs of HFMD but apart from a few more spots on his legs, he never really broke out with the major symptoms like fever, blistery rashes, painful ulcers or loss of appetite.

In fact, as you can see here, he was quite his usual cheery self throughout the 2 weeks and his voracious appetite never really did wane! We are pretty glad he caught only a very mild strain of the bug.... actually he's probably the only kid we know of who actually put on weight during his bout of HFMD with all the time he spent relaxing around the house while being quarantined!

A Big Move for a Little Boy

You may have been wondering why Ethan's World has been taking a break lately -- well, the reason is that we have been very busy packing and moving these last few months! Despite his tender age, Ethan has been very helpful in the tough work of relocation. First, we had to measure our furniture to make sure they would fit in the new place......

Then all our belongings had to be packed away in boxes.....
After that came the hard work of transporting our stuff to the new place and making a few trips to Ikea to get a few home improvements to make our place a comfortable home.......
All that was tough work for a toddler and we are glad Ethan has adjusted well to his new home. Here he is getting a well-deserved sleep for doing so well in our Big Move!

Cousins!

Aunty Ruth visited Singapore for the first time with Josie last week and although Ethan took a while to warm up to Aunty Ruth and his new cousin (now 6 months), they soon became good mates with Ethan imitating the sounds Josie was making and joining her in crawling around! We're glad he got on well with her and he sure looks like he will be a good big brother to his new sister when she comes in a couple of months!

Say Cheese!

We had friends over for dinner last night and Erny brought the coolest door gift - a Fisher Price tricycle that Jarred has outgrown. Gosh, I sure get excited over different things nowadays! Ethan was just as excited as I was when he saw it, so we cycled around the house this morning and went to the park in the afternoon. Here he is posing for the camera. In fact he learned something new these past few days. I said "Say cheese!" and Ethan actually said "Chee.." and smiled! A second after that he would cock his head to one side and smile even more broadly. We don't know where he learned this from but it sure is cute. He knows we think it's cute cos he's tilting his head more and more until in this picture it's at 90 degrees!

Daddy's Home!

Daddy is back and brought Ethan to the Bt Timah Nature Reserve after dropping mummy off at work. There is a big tiger behind us and Ethan made growling sounds when he saw it. It's the same sound he answers with when we ask him "What sound does lion make?" so cute!

We hope Ethan will be as brave as a lion tonight cos it is mummy's turn to go away, though only for one night. Daddy needs to be brave too with Ethan alone tonight!

Daddy in East Timor

Ethan missed his daddy this week cos he was away in East Timor with a team of 4 people from church. Here are two of us with two other Timorese guys. We had a really rowdy jam session in their home the night before so we were good buddies by this time! Now daddy is on the way home using free WiFi in Bali and can't wait to hug Ethan....and mummy too of course! :)

Handphone Conversations

Ethan just loves to chat on the phone. He sometimes also chats using the remote control or the alarm clock, but he usually gets it right and is on the phone. It's a great way to get him to verbalize all that cute baby-speak, and he even intersperses it with a few SMS's!

Out For A Stroll

Look who is so grown up! Ethan was going out with his favourite Dad and it looks like he could take on the world in those sporty sneakers. But going out has its dangers too. Ethan recently got his first elbow scrape when he fell down on the concrete. A few days later and he scratched the scabs off ... all without any crying. What a toughie is our little son!

Chloe or Talia?

She will turn Ethan's World upside down... and probably move it a new domain name too! We thought her name would be Chloe but now we also like Talia, and here's her ultrasound. In the beginning you can see her spine then after a few seconds look out for her head. You can make out her eyes and face and even her hand and individual fingers!

Walk with Daddy

We went to the park today - just the two boys and Ethan had a great time exercising and playing with his daddy! This is also the first mobile blog from dad's new handphone-pda. We're getting ready to mobile blog for the coming of Ethan's little sister - yes, it is confirmed that she will be a girl!

Computer Lessons

Busy, busy, busy! Ethan is touching up his own website...

Mummy says this that is exactly what Daddy looks like...both in earnest concentration and when something/someone disturbs that focussed time on the PC.

But Ethan is extra happy with what he accomplished today. You see, Daddy watches Ethan use the computer and though he tries to teach the little bub a thing or two, Ethan has started teaching Daddy some things too. We knew the time would come, but didn't think it would be so soon.

You see, Ethan will rattle away and often finds some shortcut that Daddy didn't know about. Today he somehow brought up Computer Management directly from the desktop! It's a fairly advanced and esoteric part of Windows that most people don't know about it. I usually go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management to get at it and still don't know how Ethan managed to pull it up directly.

I looked away and when I glanced back, the web-page Ethan was fiddling with suddenly looked all tiny. Upon closer inspection it was zoomed at 40% which even my lasiked 20-20 eyes couldn't read. Further examination uncovered this shortcut that Ethan taught me! In Internet Explorer click Ctrl then scroll the mouse wheel up/down and this will zoom the page in/out. I only knew Ctrl-Shift + or - to zoom in/out. This mouse wheel one is better! Thanks Ethan...

Singapore Flyer

We took a trip on the world's largest observation wheel - the Singapore Flyer! It was Barker Rd Methodist Church's staff & family day so Ethan and Ivan tagged along with everyone else. It was a great outing.

Ethan was wide-eyed with wonder at the sights, and we were suitably impressed with how well the whole Singapore Flyer experience was done. They had nice restaurants, good staff, spanking new facilities BUT no diaper change tables! Shock and horror... how can a world-class tourist attraction have no diaper change tables? One staff said "Sorry, don't have" so we proceeded to change Ethan on a bench in the foyer whereby another staff came and said, "You can use the first-aid room!" First-aid room!!?! Knock off the red-cross and slap on some white diapers I say...

At the base of the Flyer is lovely garden. Singapore seems to be very good at doing this man-made stuff which, though a little sterile, was still pleasing and fun. Ethan enjoyed it!

In the Flyer itself, I am pleased to say that the airconditioning worked very well despite the heat of the early afternoon. Ethan was the smallest of the kids there. You can see that he wants to start playing with others but doesn't quite have the physical development just yet!

Children's Garden...Again!

It was so fun that went to the Jacob Ballas' Childrens Garden again! This time we stopped along the way to get some Adam Road nasi lemak for breakfast. Ethan and Daddy had a fun time sharing this breakfast! Ethan tends to like whatever Daddy likes and he loved his first nasi lemak ... without chilli and fried chicken of course!


Just look at that happy boy face! Ethan really likes doing things that Daddy does and eating is no exception. The day was turning out great with lovely weather and Ethan looking sporty in his new swimgear. He has outgrown his previous one and this entire set cost all of $7 at an Aussie discount shop we were at earlier this year.


A walk around the Children's Garden uncovered many treasures.  One was this cute suspension bridge.  The netting on the sides makes it safe for kids and Ethan loved the challenge of walking on the bridge. Doesn't he and Daddy look sporty!?


Of course we played at the water fountain. This time Ethan had lots of sun protection with his special sun-protecting hat so we stayed a looong time.


After all that play, Ethan changed into dryer clothes and we shared a peppermint ice-cream.  Daddy and Ethan's trick is to be fed using your mouth instead of your hands.  Coordinated aren't we?

Birthday Party

No, it's not Ethan's birthday but Kelly's, Ethan's cousin (actually their daddys are cousins). This was Ethan's first kiddies party, so he was younger than most of the kids but being there was great for him cos he watched all the others and learned valuable lessons on how to play!

A little magic show entertained the kiddies, and Ethan clapped and raised his hands on cue following all the other kids! He hasn't figured it all out yet but he sure knows it's fun!

Slave Baby

This cute baby was found cleaning windows, boxes, and balcony railings... and wearing only a loincloth too!

Henderson Bridge Walk

We took Ethan on the Henderson Waves bridge walk recently. It was a public holiday and half of Singapore was there. Squeezing into a parking lot that wasn't really a parking lot at Telok Blangah we made our way up the steep path to the beginning of the Henderson Waves bridge.

It was rather hot but a beautiful day so we made our way down towards the cable car towers. The bridge really is lovely with its organic flowing lines and wooden deck. It's a great place for the kids to explore and enjoy too. Mummy did superbly well and was able to keep a good healthy pace now being 4.5 months pregnant.

We finally made it to the cable car towers, enjoyed 2 cokes and more nice views but we didn't take any pictures there. We let Ethan walk a little on the way back and he loved the scenery. He and Daddy looked great together in their matching hats!

Little Chef

Someone has a tendency to clamour to watch the action when Mummy or Daddy are cooking in the kitchen. We often try to buy some time & space by giving Ethan his own utensils to play with but his favourite so far seems to be our South African Salad Bowl which looks a lot like the wok Mummy was frying up dinner in! We hope he learns to savour the joy and art of combining various ingredients and making them zing with his imagination and lots of love like his Mummy, Daddy & Grandma do!

Children's Garden at Botanics

We had a really good outing at the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at the Botanic Gardens recently. Actually, we only made it as far as the water play station. There was plenty more but that was more than enough for us. It is really a fantastic place and we were the only the Asians there... all the other families were Caucasians!

Daddy got wet together with Ethan who got really wet. His big Ethan Cap worked really well cos not only did it protect his face from the harsh sun, it also protected his eyes from too much water splashing in.

Ethan played with the water cans and a little bit with the other kids but he was more engrossed with the water. We realized that this is actually more fun for him than the swimming pool cos he can move aorund a lot more here. Our little boy really enjoyed himself!