August 2008

Pete’s department had a celebration dinner at the 1885 in the E&O hotel last Wednesday evening. The invitation was also extended to the spouse/date, however this place spelt fine dining, and as such kids were not allowed.

So after much deliberation, we decided to make arrangements with Mrs Tan and leave Ethan under her care while we attended the dinner. It was to be the first time ever we would be picking Ethan up from the baby sitter’s place at such a late hour (we anticipated the dinner to end around 10:30-11:00p.m.), and I was a little concerned if Ethan would be worried, wondering where Mommy and Daddy were.

So I decided to take the day off and be with Ethan for the most part of the day. That way he wouldn’t have to spend so much time away from us. I drove him out for lunch, picked his Daddy up from work and we had a bite in Queensbay Mall. Then we went back home, where I had hoped he would be able to nap for a while before heading to the sitter’s. Although I could tell he was tired and sleepy, he simply didn’t want to sleep! So I decided to drop him off at Mrs Tan’s place at about 3:30p.m.

Guess what? Ethan fell asleep on the way there! He was still groggy when we arrived and so I am not sure if he knew I said buh bye to him.

With a heavy heart, I drove away, knowing that Ethan was in good hands, but also missing him every bit.

The dinner ended earlier than we had expected and we arrived to pick Ethan up at about 10:15p.m. that night. He smiled when he saw us at the door and ran towards his Daddy, hugging Pete tight. But I was kinda sad when he pushed me away. Dunno if it was because he was angry with me.

But all’s well that ends well. He was all lovey-dovey again when we reached home, and although he requested to watch a little bit of his Great Numbers Game video, he called it a night soon after. And from the way he slept, we could tell it was a long tiring day for him too, as it was for us.

The next morning, he was all ready to embrace a brand new day! See? Already busy ransacking the fridge before we left for work

I love counting 1-20 now. Although I still miss out a few of the numbers, either Mommy or Daddy can fill in the blanks for me. Hehe. I bet I’ll learn those soon enough

See? I can count AND exercise at the same time too!

Scrap Credits
Film Star kit from retrodiva {designs}™
Curl Page kit freebie filmstrip from Cen’s Stuff
Alpha Black from Digiscrap.ch
Little curly alphas from Amy Sumrall
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Doodle Me Big doodles from Mikkel Paige Original
Elegant word art (stay little always) from Bethany

Ethan boy is now two-and-a-half years old!

Weight

12 kilos, according to the weighing scale at home.

Height

About 88cm I think, measurement taken with measuring tape while Ethan was sleeping.

Teeth

I think 18 teeth. Bottom 2 canines are still not present though.

Motor Skills

• Can remove his own shoes and loves doing so.
• Still eagerly practising his jumping skills.
• Can do hand stand, by supporting his body with his arms, and using his legs to climb up the wall vertically. Ethan has rather strong arm muscles, I’d say. We’ve seen him supporting his weight with his arms while in his high chair too.
• Can climb up the playground slide unaided using railings, where he needs to hold on to the sides with his arms, and use his legs to grip the railings firmly. I have to admit he almost gave me a heart attack when he first attempted to do it, but now I am proud to say he’s a pro at it!
• Able to gurgle and spit. He will brush his teeth, but will not do it with toothpaste, although strangely enough, he requests for the toothpaste to be placed on his toothbrush. Then he takes some water from the cup, gurgle and then spit when I cue him, “Ptooi!”

Communication and Social Skills

More words … those I can remember. Mostly single words still, and I am in the process of helping him string two words together ( 1 verb + 1 noun).

Body Parts

• Ham (hand)

Animals

• Cat
• Eh-fer (elephant)

Nouns

• Beh (bell) - when he wants to ring the bell to our apartment.
• Tway (train)

Verbs

• Close
• Wa (flush) … the toilet la, what else?

Alphabets and Numbers
Can recognize most of his alphabets, and can even recite them in order. But we’ll need to “fill in the blanks” for those he is unsure of. When he notices letters on our attire, he will excitedly point them out and name them. Even when he is riding in the car, he never fails to surprise us with his observance. He will point out letters as he sees them and clearly say them out loud

He knows the order of numbers from 1-10, and when I first drafted this post about 4 days ago, he will only say “two” (2), “twee” (3), “eh” (8) and “nah” (9). Actually I heard him say “ten” a couple of times already, but it is still inconsistent. I know he knows the order of the numbers because he can correctly place the correct numbers in the right places when he is counting in ascending AND descending order. But my my, look what a difference few days made. Ethan can now say “wa” (1), “four” (4), “fai” (5) also and believe it or not “eighteeeen!!” (18).

Shapes and Colors
Has started to vocalize more shapes, like “har” (heart), “kurkurl” (circle) and “over” (oval).

Food and Feeding

After the deworming exercise, either by sheer coincidence or it really was due to the exercise, Ethan has started taking some chicken meat (willingly). He especially loves Nando’s lemon and herb flavored chicken … and especially so when I serve it to him using those cute flag toothpicks!

Lately Ethan has taken a keen interest in learning the alphabet, quite possibly thanks to the video Michelle loaned me

He now knows most of the letters of the alphabet in the correct order, but those that he does not know, he will say “eh-ya” (which I personally think sounds like “beh-hiao”, i.e. “donno” in Hokkien), and THAT’s the cue for us to fill in the blanks for him. He also loves to have us repeat after each letter he has said, otherwise he will not continue.

The pronunciation of some letters are just spot on but some are still being worked on. Oddly enough, he says “Neh” for the letter J. Don’t ask me why.

In addition to reciting the alphabet, he can recognize the letters we draw/write for him. Another activity we indulge in when we are trying to get him to sit still in the high chair when we dine out.