Unlucky day for Ethan

Feel like Ethan still doesn't like to learn Chinese language. Maths learning is so far so good. Today, mummy gave Ethan "yakult" and banana. When eating the banana, mummy asked where is the banana in the poster, he can point to the picture of the banana.

Mummy has captured some video of Ethan tapping his foot while the hand is holding the two word "run" and " foot".

Today seemed the weather was nice, so mummy let him go out to the garden to play with his ball. Mummy monitored him so that he will not get bitten by the mosquito. Unfortunately
he still got bitten by the mosquito. This is really bad luck. It has been already a few days that he was not allow to go out since that day he got bitten. Now he got bitten once again!

Ethan is very greedy and Chicky. During the dinner time he got cereal to eat while eating his dinner. He got the habit that he wants to put the cereal in the spoon full of porridge before eating. If no cereal then he will not eat the porridge. Today, mummy put a bowl of cereal in his high chair. Then he spilled all the cereal into his high chair plate holder. Later he put all cereal into the bowl and picked up the bowl to put into his mouth so that he can eat a lots of cereal.

Every time after giving Ethan a bath, he will request to cover his whole body with the towel and walk around the room. If mummy didn't cover his body, he will cry. However, today he got the bad experience of falling down while covering in the towel. He cried like hell. It should be very painful as his forehead immediately got "tall building". Really pity him. We put ice on his head using a towel. From now on perhaps we need to monitor him for next 24 hours to see whether the fall has any impact or not. Pray hard.

Learning and having some fun with the tricycle

Finally, mummy managed to teach Ethan the English, Maths and Chinese. Seems like Ethan's interest is in learning English. This is because when mummy flashed more than 100 small cards, he didn't turn the head away. He attentatively looked untill all the cards had been finished flashing. For Chinese, he did look at the flashcard but sometimes turned his head away and turned it back again. For maths, Mummy did not dare to flash more because shed is afraid it will make Ethan bored.

Today, Ethan saw his red tricycle in the other room and he pushed the tricycle into his play room. It has been long time he didn't ride the bike since the day he had fallen down from the bike. He like its even he still don't know how to ride a bike. He used his foot to push the bike.

After having some fun with the bike, mummy let Ethan eat the big banana. There are some photo of Ethan eating the banana.

At nite Ethan have fun with daddy by playing the blocks. Ethan like to stack the blocks then will destroy it.

Recreation Park

This morning my parents planned to go the park early but it was raining. Therefore we detoured and went to see the furniture first. Mummy wanted to buy the shelf. Wah! It is too expensive but the set one is very pretty, probably need to wait for Ethan to grow up then only let him choose his favorite one for his own room.

By the time we finally arrived at the park, Taman Metropolitan Relau, was around 10 something. Ethan was tired and wanted to sleep, so he has no mood to play around . We just walked around and snapped some photos. Mummy don't mind because we still have next time as the park is quite near our house.

Ethan had fun on the playground as shown below. However, quite a lot of the playthings, such as swings, etc were damaged. Somehow the maintenance for this public playground was not well done. :-(

Ethan was so tired that he became restless. Daddy has to carried him on the back in order to humor him. Ethan rode on Daddy's back.

Today, mummy only managed to teach 5 Chinese new words for 2 times per day. No maths today. Seems like the timetable was all messed up because in the weekend we normally bring Ethan outside. Normal day, because Daddy is working so only mummy accompanies Ethan. I guess weekend is the day for Ethan to explore the outside world. Weekday is for Ethan to do home study and play some indoor toys. Sometimes if the weather is good, mummy will let Ethan go out and play in garden.

Starting to learn the dot card in math

Today, Ethan is starting to learn his math using dot cards recommended by the Glenn Doman. First mummy was really afraid that he will not like it because this method is best teached to infants. So mummy only ask daddy to print 10 pages from 1 to 10. Today mummy taught him 1 to 5. It seems like he loves it. He looked at all the cards and then only turn his head away. So it is encouraging for mummy to try more cards on him. In afternoon session, mummy made a huge mistake is while flash the dot cards mummy use the english language instead of Chinese language. Mummy only realize after finish teaching him. Hopefully he will not be get confuse.

Beside that today he also learn additional 5 new words in Chinese, now totally have 15 words per day. According to Glenn the overall teaching needs 25 words per day in 5 set of words.

Learning Chinese Words

Mummy started to teach Ethan Chinese words. These are 5 words regarding the family member. He like its. After teaching him, he wanted to play with the cards. He use one of the card and hide his face and played Peek Ka Boo with mummy.

Ethan really likes to throw things. Today he picked the blocks we bought for him, he did not stack the blocks but istead threw them. He likes to throw and pick , throw and pick. This kind game he can play for few minutes.

Seems like a long time I didn't give him drink "yakult". I gave him one and let him hold the bottle and suck it himself. He bit the straw till the drink cannot be sucked up into the mouth. Mummy need to ask him to let go the drink and restore back the straw so he can suck the drink from the straw. Seems like mummy needs to let him practise more using straw when drinking.

Tomorrow mummy will start teaching Ethan the math dot cards. After discuss with Daddy, mummy decide to use chinese language to teach him as the chinese pronounce the number is short compare with english language.

Revision of the new words

Yesterday, mummy taught Ethan the new words. As mummy was afraid that today he will forget about it, she tried to ask him to pick the new words that he learned yesterday. Good thing he correctly picked them up. Yesterday when mummy taught the word run, mummy demonstrated how to run to him - he laughed until he hiccup. So today when mummy asked "Where is the word run?", he laughed. It seems that the moment he listens to this word, him remembered the fun time he had with mummy yesterday.
Today mummy let Ethan held a pencil and scribbled on the paper, he liked it so much!!!



For the past few days mummy didn't let him out from the house to play because of the rainy day. Just now when mummy went out to collect his clothes, he cried and wanted to go out. When we let him out of the house, his face looked very happy. We let him play for a while. He was bubbling a string of words that we could not comprehend. He walked around the upper garden and look through the fence.

Learned New Words

Ethan learned some new words today.

He learned very fast because he was half playing and half learning with Mummy. However, he still does not seems to want to learn maths. Mummy is still figuring out how to best teach Ethan maths.

Half play, half learning, hooray!!! It's fun...

We planned to bring Ethan to the Zoo one day. However, before going there Mummy plans to create a mini-animal books for Ethan.

Trying to learn as many words ... If only I could speak

Going back to Kedah grandpa's house

In order to solve the Ethan constipation, mummy today gave him to eat a whole banana and an orange. Luckily later he can pass his bowel movement.

Ethan really like the dog. When he arrived at grandpa's house, his will ask people to hold him to find a dog, then he will laugh when the dog barked on him. Really weird fellow.

As per usual, he still like to collect all the dry leave from the floor even though the location changed to grandpa's house. He was running here and there to collect the dry leave and he tried to throw it through the gate. It seem to us like his hand was stuck in between the door. Then mummy go near him and he quickly took off his hand from the gate.

After playing for while he saw that grandpa came out from house. He quickly grabbed grandpa and ask him to take him to drive the car.

Because the late afternoon he didn't sleep so we have to let him sleep early at night. Finally he slept at 8.00pm something tonight.

Visiting to the Great grandma house and bookstore

Today, brought Ethan to Great Grandma's house, he has stranger anxiety even though he didn't cry. So weird as usually he is very friendly to everybody when we brought him outside. He can even smile to stranger.

After visiting the great grandma's house we went to the bookshop to buy some books for him. Mummy managed to select 11 books for him under "Ladybird Read with Me". Besides buying the books for him, mummy and daddy also bought some books. Ethan saw other kids and become very excited, the other boy is 23 month old - is bit older than Ethan. Ethan baby talked to that boy but no response from him. It might be because he didn't understand what Ethan was talking. Ethan walked, ran and yelled around the book cabinet inside the bookstore. He was very happy. Later, after playing for quite some time Ethan became restless. This was because he was very tired and cannot sleep. His mood became very bad. We quickly paid for the books and gone back home. Inside the car, mummy let him drink milk. After a while he fell asleep inside the car while we were on the way back home. Really pity him.

At night, after giving Ethan a bath Mummy found out that his asshole is red. It may be due to these few day he got constipation. Mummy need to think how to solve this problem .....

Driving the Car

Ethan likes to drive Daddy's car. Whenever daddy brought him out in the car, once the car is driven into out car porch - Ethan will climb from the passenger seat behind to driver seat in front. Sometimes daddy will let him hold the steering wheel. However, he is not satisfied by just holding the steering. He will also play with the indicator light and also switch on the car head lights. One amazing thing is that Ethan even tried to mimic the way daddy change the gear. Daddy guess he must have seen my changing gear numerous times when daddy drove.

Ethan with Daddy on the wheel ....

Apart from driving the car, Ethan also tried his hands on helping Daddy wash the car.

Is it really washing the car, or getting washed?

Playing ball and wearing shoe

Notice that Ethan like to wear adult shoe especially his daddy shoe even though his feet is too small to fit but at least he tried his best. Finally bought the sandal for him. However, I would need to go back to my hometown in Kedah to get it as was brought by Ethan's grandma. Before that we have tried to buy a few for him but it was very difficult for him to wear. This was due to the fact that we lacked experience of what type fits him since he just learn to walk two month ago. Daddy also brought a sandal from US but is too small. We just wondered why shoe sold in US meant for 24 months old toddler is not able to be worn by Ethan. Tried but it was too small. Seems like he got big foot.

When mummy brought him to the outside garden of my house to play ball, he likes to throw the ball inside the bottom of the daddy car. When we asked him " Where is the ball?" - he will sit down and sometimes even slept on the floor and pointed to us that the ball is under the car. He then asked us to take it out for him. Beside throwing the ball he also like to collect all the dry leaves on the floor and he will never let go it.

He likes to hold the dry leave and walk around. Even when asked him to pick up the ball, he would not let go of the leave. Weird little fellow...

Take a short rest on the staircase ...

Learning Maths and reading books

Today, Mummy had made flashcard for Ethan to learn mathematics. Daddy helped to laminate them so that we could paste them on the cabinet in our bedroom. Hope that he like its. Beside these math still wonder when is the best time for him to learn Chinese language. Headache!!!!!

Ethan likes to read the "Key Words with Ladybird - Peter and Jane". Everyday he will pick up the book and flip the page by page. Even sometime take the book to Mummy or daddy to ask to read for him. Mummy told daddy the new book became old book after being flipped so frequently by Ethan. First mummy wondered why he likes the Peter and Jane so much, then only realize that a lot of words in the book he knows. Like red ball, train, water, jump etc... Every time mummy asked him to find the words inside the page he can actually choose the correct one . So it is very motivating for mummy to try to teach him other than English. Daddy does noticed as well that Ethan likes to flip to a particular page that has Peter kicking a red ball. When daddy asked him to point to the red ball, he pointed the wording "red ball" in the text instead of the red ball in the picture.

Learns How to Stack Wooden Blocks

Two days ago, Ethan learned how to stack the wooden cube blocks that daddy bought in the US. He played with the blocks while sitting on his potty. He managed to stack 11 blocks. During his attempt for the 12th block, the whole stack collapsed.

But he got a bad habit is that he likes to throw the block into the potty while he is passing his bowel movement. This really scared mummy as every time she need to monitor when will Ethan throws the blocks. This persist until mummy doesn't want to let him play the blocks during the potty time anymore.

He got successful before by throwing the toys inside the potty after he passed the bowel movement. Really a naughty boy.

Ethan's Words Picking Captured on Video

Mummy SkyPE me that she had captured the video of Ethan picking the word today. He actually picked 16 words then he didn't want to play anymore. Her comment is that she thinks Ethan actually knows more than that as this morning in the room he also know to pick the body part. The video captured was for previously learned words and not the new words. So Mummy predicts that maybe he knows more than 30 words.

Back home at night, daddy saw the video. Pretty impressive that Ethan can now recognize so many words. Since the video file is in huge 100MB of MP4 format, daddy have trim it to around 12MB (the length of picking 2 words, "ball" and "key") to be posted here in this blog. Happy watching ....

Penang Hill Outing Trip

Daddy have taken one full day of vacation leave to bring my family to Penang Hill. This is mainly meant as an exposure trip for Ethan. This would be his first time taking the tram car up a hill.

We woke up early in the morning at 7.00am while Ethan is still asleep. Mummy prepared sardine sandwiches so that we could have a mini picnic up the hill. Daddy watered the plants and took the Innova to the Toyota workshop for servicing. Ethan woke up 10 mins before daddy left. It is amazing that at 7.55am when I reached the workshop, I was number 3 customer in the waiting list !!! While writing this blog, I am still waiting in the customer lounge. According to the service person in-charge, my car should be ready before 11.00am. Luckily the customer lounge has free wireless LAN access, therefore life is not so boring with the 3 hours waiting time. :-)

Our plan is to go to Penang hill after I have gotten my car serviced and before lunch time. Hopefully, being week day and all - the crowd should not be so many at the base of the hill in Air Itam.

Unfortunately the plan had to change a bit. When I got back home Ethan was ready to take this nap. So we had to wait until he had fully slept before we could make a move. At 2.00pm, we were ready with everything and headed towards Penang Hill. Arrived roughly 3.40pm, just in time to buy the ticket and take the 4.00pm tram car up the hill. Adult tickets costs RM4.00 for a return trip. Children below 3 years of age (namely your truly, Ethan) does not need to pay. 3 ~ 12 years old is half price at RM2.00 for return trip.

This photo was captured in front of the tram car terminal at the foot of Penang hill. Both Ai Yoong and Ethan pointed at the same time I snapped the shutter of my Canon Digital IXUS55.

There were quite a crowd when we boarded the tram car. Most of the tourists were families from Saudi Arabia, I think. The ladies were wearing black dress and veil that covers completely their faces. Numerous times Ethan was pointing his finger to them and let out a sound, "Ah!!".

Penang hill upper (top most part) is roughly 700m from sea level. At mid-hill (lower) at around 300m above sea level, we had to change a tram car. During the ride up hill, Ethan was as usual being friendly and smiled to the Saudi husband and wife. The wife took off her veil and smiled at Ethan, he smiled back. Later, he even let them hug him for a while. However, after 10 secs Ethan held out his arms to ask me to hug him back. Both Ai Yoong thought that maybe he was not shy with strangers. However this event shown that he has his limit.

Insert is a photo captured while we were in the tram car moving uphill.

It was a bit hazy at the hill top. With luck we were still able to see Georgetown and the city. News says that our neighboring country, Indonesia is at it again (open burning) - this cause the Haze. It just started since yesterday. Could get worst by the days if no rainfall.



Short rest up the hill to take a drink and also some biscuit to replenish energy.



Caught the 5.00pm tram car coming down the hill after wondering the top of the hill for about half an hour.

Some other photos captured during the day: