Growing phase in year 2008

Time flies really fast, Ethan already turned into 3 years old last month. Mummy thought it should be recorded down his growing phase before the new year. (At least when he is older that time, he will look back at his growing up milestones). Well, the big difference between this year and last year was that we are in Shanghai to celebrate the new year. Ethan had a chance to experience the 4 seasons and went to international school to study.

Summaries of 2008:
Toys
- This year the toys mostly based on the theme of transportation. We bought different type of transportation toys for him. In this year, he also experienced a few new transportation vehicles by himself like airplane, subway, tram car etc. If compared with the last year's toys, this year is way way less. We did buy a few new puzzles for him but his interest was not so great.

Books
- More books for this year as we have relocated to Shanghai end of May and mummy found out that the books here are extremely cheap compared to Malaysia. Sure will quickly grasped this opportunity and buy more books for him. This year more Chinese and bilingual books. Still headache was that he does not really like the Chinese books, may it is too difficult for him?
- Find a way to save the books cost, borrowed books from school library. It did save the parents a lump sum of money.

Clothes
- Did a lot of shopping for Ethan especially for the winter clothing. Daddy said Ethan was the most trendy and fashionable in our house. All his winter clothes are brand new unless his parents.

Sick and injection
- No injection for this year
- Sick frequently during Oct and Nov month. These two months were the peak period for Ethan to visit the hospital. He had his first ear infection and terrible rashes since birth. All due to the changing seasons and also he was attending the school. Why we say that attending the school was the main cause? We did observe that when we traveled that time. During the super hot summer time, we were freaked of Ethan getting sick because we traveled a lot under the hot sun. But he did escape from attack by the virus. And the super cool winter, we also traveled and he was also free of sickness. The period was before he start attending the school and also during the school holiday. To prevent and protect Ethan against the virus, we fed him with manuka honey, Scott liver oil, pureen vitamin supplement. Hope that these things can really help.

Motor Skills
Leg/Foots
a) Surely the motor skill has improved compared with last year. This year he dare to jump, hop and even ran faster
b) Not only can ride the bicycle(still on 4 wheels) but also can master the scooter.
c) Dance whenever listen to the music. Sometimes mummy will ask him to shake his hip, the way he does it really funny.

Hand/Fingers
- Coloring skill still at the beginning stage. He doesn't really like to color, sometimes ask him to color, he just like to color the object in one line or one spot. The school didn't really start to ask them to color. The school has them for free style coloring on the paper.
- He like to stamp things. The school did let them chop/stamp with the sponge. The way he used the chop is much better after he attended the school.
- Writing skills. Not yet, he only know how to write the "1' and sometime '7'.
- Using the scissor. Sometime can cut but sometime cannot. Not to blame his skills, it is the scissor problem as it is made of plastic and not steel so not that sharp. Dare not let his use the steel scissor because afraid he will accidentally hurt himself.
- Know how to use his little finger to button and unbutton his shirt. Zip the clothes, etc.
- Know how to wear and take off the T-shirt and pants. Shoes and socks are also not a problem for him. He can do all the things by himself without his parents help.
- His little finger also know how to press and play his favorite DVD and radio.
- Lately his hobby is playing with his mother's laptop. Using the mouse to click here and there. He knows how to open and play the music.
- The busy finger did call our driver when he gets to play with our hand phone.

Vocal skill
- More chatter box right now compared with last year. Can form a simple sentence.
- Before we were in Shanghai, he normally speaks in English but after we arrived here few months later, he started to speak in mandarin.
- One problem for Ethan is he rarely respond to outsider when they are asking him. Whenever outsider asked and talked to him, he only stares at that people. This situation is improving in the school compared with the first few months when he was in the school. When we have the teacher and parent interview back in Oct, the teacher only realized that Ethan can talk a lot when he is with his parents.

Reading skill
- He was keen to learn to read. The pronunciation is clear right now compared to the start of the year.
- Since mummy has borrowed books from library everyday, it did help him to practise his reading skills. He likes to read the books with mummy. Mummy did change the style of reading the story books to him. When reading the pages, mummy will ask him some questions and ask him to tell mummy what he has observed from the page. Beginning of year and last year, mummy's style was only read what were the words in the book to him and did not interact and get participation from him. Changing the style really helps him to better understand and mummy also knows from his stand point what he observed from the books.Nowadays before mummy read the books to him, mummy will do some preparation like go to website to check the pronunciation of the words and the meaning that mummy is not sure. Last time mummy simply "tembak' the pronunciation and it maybe incorrect. If mummy can correct mummy's bad habit then Ethan can learn the correct thing.
-Can only read few Mandarin words.
- Loves number. We always say that from Ethan's point of view, everything is number to him. Everything he can count.
- Now can read the time in digital form.

Food
- This year Ethan has a lot of different style of food especially after we arrived in Shanghai.
- Changed his taste. Last time, he didn't like the raisin. He will spit it out from his mouth but right now, it is one of his favorite food. He will request from us by saying, "I want raisin". His face looks happy when we fulfilled his needs.
- He loves the soya milk and we have bought the machine to blend and cook the bean.
- More Japanese food this year. Now whenever we walked by Carrefour food stall, he will point to stall and says ' I want Takoyaki". He cannot resist the attraction of this food. Hard time for us when we pass by that way.
- Not yet let him to take sweets. Always wanted him to eat less sugar and salted food.

Favorite Character
- Is "Barney" the purple dinosaur. Actually, he only started to love Barney after moving to Shanghai. It was a month that he craved for it but lately not the case. Sometimes when mummy is busy cooking and asks whether he wants to watch the barney or not, he will refuse and he would rather play with his toys, mummy pc and etc.
- Add one more is Noddy, this was accidentally introduced to him. Mother bought him the story book and the book came in with the VCDs. That was a time he loves this character more than Barney. Now maybe because mummy had kept the whole VCD on the shelf and he also forget about it.
-Mother didn't buy other characters' DVD for him. Other characters he knows is told by his parents, like mickey mouse, doreamon, elmo(the book borrowed from library) and etc. We didn't buy any DVD other than Barney for him in China even though it is cheap. Maybe can consider...???

More independent and so bossy matters
- When we want to pay the money and/or receive money, he is the one who want to hold the money
- He will press the password and uses the key to open the door
- He will press the microwave, on and off the TV/ radio. Toast the bread.
- Will pull on his pants when want to pee(summer time) but not for winter time because too many thick layer of pants
- There was one time, he made himself the milk in his milk bottle
- Too many independent stuffs

Overall, he is a happy growing kid.

Hiking trip for Ethan toTian Ma Shan(天马山)

After having lunch, we headed to next destination Tian Ma Shan. The place was quite far away from the first visit. Since our driver has not been here before so daddy was helping him to check the map while he was driving. We had entered the road when we saw the road sign with Tian Ma and our driver felt that was wrong place so he stopped to ask the local people for direction. The local people gave direction that we need to drive further inside the place. At last from the road side, we can see the pagoda far away and we knew that we were close by.

Finally we reached the place, Ethan didn't sleep on the way. We have to bring him together to hike up the hill to see the pagoda. Luckily Ethan was those kind of kid who likes to walk the steps as he can count step by step. Since Ethan was slow compared with adult so mummy asked daddy to hike up first then mummy accompanied Ethan slowly to hike up the hill.

The way up the hill

Ethan managed to hike up the hill up. But when we can see the pagoda that time, Ethan lost his energy so he refused to hike anymore. Mummy had to hold him to walk up the hill. Really exhausted hiking up while holding the more than 10kg kid. There was an auntie who walked down the hill seeing mummy rest beside the road and asked why we brought kid to this place. At last, Ethan finished the rest of the steps to the pagoda. Overall Ethan hiked 90% up the hill. Not bad for him.

Our purpose to hike this hill was to see the pagoda. What was the special and difference of this pagoda compared with others? Well, the uniqueness is that the pagoda is a leaning pagoda. One of the pagoda brick leg was stolen by people because they wanted to steal the money inside this pagoda. Lacked one leg at the base had caused the pagoda to lean.

Beside the pagoda, there was a small well. We were afraid that Ethan will fall inside the well as the hole of the well just manage to suit Ethan's size. If he falls inside really don't know how to rescue him.

Mummy and Ethan was sitting on the well

After the pagoda, we continued to hike the hill. This round Ethan asked his daddy to hold him up instead of him walking. Poor daddy had to hold Ethan. Luckily daddy can rest half way because there was a fish shaped rock. We showed Ethan the rock and let him take photo with it.

The rock looks like a fish???

Can spot daddy holding Ethan?

There was nothing to see top at the hill. There was a golden Buddhist statue for people to pray. The guardian there asked whether we want to pray or not by buying the joss stick. Walked down the hill, Ethan also lazy to walk so poor daddy again have to hold him. If didn't hold him, he will stand still there, the worst part was that he will lay on the floor.

Since we hiked up and down the hill, we didn't feel the cold in the late afternoon. We quickly walked down the hill as we were afraid the sky would get dark. Winter time, 4 something in the afternoon, the sky will start to get dark.

Ethan slept on the way back. Surely he was very tired after so much walking.

Ethan to the Islamic SongJiang Mosque(松江清真)

Today we brought Ethan to SongJiang district again as we wanted to complete the attraction we have miss out in our last trip. Accordingly, this was the oldest mosque in Shanghai. We have to pay RMB6 per person and Ethan was free of charge.

The mosque displayed the tomb of ancient virtuous Islam grave of the founder in this mosque. Ethan didn't know anything of it and he tried to climb and sit on the grave. Luckily the guard didn't scold him. Behind this mosque there was a place where all the Islamic people was buried and graves inside. There was one building displaying the history of the mosque with photos.

The mosque building structure was not the same as what we have seen in Malaysia. It is mostly a combination of Chinese and Arabic style. For Ethan, he definitely doesn't know the difference and he just walked or ran around the buildings. He simply followed where his parents go.

Some of building have been locked up. The Bethel building was for viewing and it was blocked to outsiders entering deeper inside the building. We only can see it from the main door. We have worried that Ethan would want to cross the boundary and enter into restricted Islam site.

Overall, we have a short trip to this place. After we left the place, we walked towards the town to find the resturant to have our lunch. We wanted to find back the restaurant we had lunch last time but after walking along the street till the end, we could not find it. Seems like the resturant had changed owner, changing really fast as we just visited the place few months ago. So we chose one of the resturants nearby to have our lunch. Ethan was always gaining attention from people, few waiters had told their peers to look at Ethan. They said Ethan is cute. Ethan waved and said bye bye to the waiter when he wanted to step out from the restaurant.

Raining again

It was raining again. No choice still cannot go any where. Really wasted daddy's annual leave since we just stayed at home. We actually wanted to visit some places after resting one day at home but.....speechless. Again, our entertainment was shopping again.

Raining day

It was raining today so didn't go any where, only asked our driver to pick us up to go to the shopping area to buy some food and stuffs. Well, if the weather was good we also didn't know where to visit as we almost finished visiting all the attractions in Shanghai. Going for long distance was not the priority as we also need to consider whether Ethan can take it or not.

Under the cool weather really made people lazy and wanted to lay at home instead of going out. So after finishing the shopping and a nice lunch, we went back home and rest for the day.

More collection

Today we went to the Yu Yuan. The purpose we chose here as our visit was because Ethan woke up very late in the morning. Almost hit 10.00am. Terrible....

When we arrived at the place, it was almost lunch time. We had "Burger King" there. Good to know that we could still enjoy our favorite Onion Rings in Shanghai. After having had the lunch, we walked around the place. There was a lot of people especially in the afternoon because it will be warmer.

Now we can feel the Chinese New Year atmosphere because stores started some decoration even though the Christmas decoration not yet been taken down. There are shopping complex where the shops had started selling the CNY decoration.

We have bought more Doraemon collection for Ethan. The Keropp collection was for mummy. Mummy like this cutie frog.

Besides these collections, we also bought the hand carved name stamp for Ethan. We have asked the shop person to carve both Ethan's English and Chinese name in one single stamp.