Now I'm big bother "kor kor" - Ethan

Today Ethan had been upgraded to become big brother, "kor kor". Mummy's sister just delivered a baby girl in the hospital. Well, today is a special day as it is the once in 4 years time, Feb 29.

Regress on potty training

Recently mummy noticed that Ethan regresses and starts to refuse to do potty training. Every time mummy called for he to come and go to toilet for wee wee, he just run away and pee on the other side. This happened few times per day and it has been driving mummy crazy and mad.

No choice! Mother has to go to the internet to search other people's opinion regarding the potty training. Some parents offer rewards such as stickers or treats when their child poops in the potty for the first time or stays dry for a certain number of days in a row. Maybe mother was pushing him too hard or he feels the pace is too fast? Our little boy react to the pressure by slowing down rather than speeding up.

Well, guess mummy has to be patience when it comes to training our little boy in this area.

Our little superstar

ABC....., Baa Baa black sheep....., one little, two little ....
Whenever we play the Kids' song CD from the CD player, Ethan will try to follow and sing the songs and follow-up with dance. This was the exercise that he will have after his bath and before his goes to sleep. Sometimes we have to ask him whether he will be tired after all the singing and dancing the whole CD song. The CD consists of 20 songs. We even tried to stop him but he seems to be enjoying every moment of it.

Ethan does not only try to learn to sing the English kid's song, he even tried to learn up the Japanese songs that his parents like to listen. Although he does not really sing the whole song (both English and Japanese) but we were glad he takes the initiative to try to follow the singer. Guess mother has to print out the lyric of the kid's songs and teach him how to sing them.

Mummy, it's spicy!

These two days of staying in the hotel we were having the dinner every night at the hawker center. First night was nearby walking distance from the hotel and another night was in the open air hawker center at Gurney Drive.

We were greatly surprised when the first night we went to the hawker center nearby the hotel. Wow! It was crawling with people and we could hardly find a seat. I guess because we were holding Ethan, there was one couple of old folks foreigner told mother that they were leaving and asked us to take their place. Well that time there was another lady who also spotted the same table but this couple said that they have already served it for us.

Seeing lots of people at the hawker center and also Ethan was restless. We were hoping that ordering the spring roll will be faster than the main dish. Finally mother's Hokkien fried mee arrived and our little also want to try mother's dish. Mother had to feed him and eat fast. Else mother will not get to eat. This is mainly because Ethan has the habit that when mother is feeding him he will not allow mother to eat instead just concentrate to feed him. As you know normally Hokkien fried mee will accompany with the "sambal". While feeding him then suddenly our little boy yelled " 辣! 辣!" then cried. Mother quickly checked and found out some part of the mee were mixed with little chili.

Second night we went to Hawker center at Gurney Drive , we ordered Laksa, Rojak and fishball mee sua. Mummy tasted the Laksa and felt that it was sweet and not spicy, then try to let Ethan eat - the same things happen

Want some water to get rid of the chilli in mouth?

Fashion show

After returning from the hotel, mother was rushing to wash all the clothes that we have worn during our two days hotel stay. Then mother realized that there Ethan had worn a lot of clothes for the past 2 days. Mummy was so shocked because the clothes hangers are not enough to hang all these clothes.

Lets start to view Ethan Chan's fashion show: -

Well these are only the daytime clothes. There are still two sets of dinner time clothes and two sets of pajamas which mummy didn't take any photos.

Sandy Morning

We headed to the beach after we have had our breakfast at the hotel. Yesterday, daddy told mummy that Ethan dared to walked into the sand. Well, actually he was wearing his Nike shoe. So today mummy wanted to witness with her own eyes.

First, Ethan was still struggling a bit whether to step forward or not, while after some thoughts he bravely stepped his foot on the sandy beach. We brought him to walk along the beach to find a place which was suitable for him to play with his sand toy (hope that we can take off his shoe while he was busy playing).

Daddy demonstrated to him how to mold the shapes with sand. He found it to be very interesting while mummy quickly took the chances to remove his shoes.

Immediately after taking off his shoe, our little son started to yell. We felt like wanted to faint when he heard him screaming, "dirty". Seems that he cannot tolerate the grain of sand sticking on his feet. He kept yelling "dirty! dirty!" while using his hand to brush away the sand from his feet. We tried to switch his attention by showing a lot of molding sand of castle, hand, foot etc but it did not really work. So mummy had to tell Ethan that if he wanted his feet to be cleaned then he has to walk with his parents to near the edge of the beach and let the sea water washes away all the sand. Our son wimped when reach the edge of the beach. Even daddy had to lure him by finding the shell on the beach and showed him.

See his photo as he walked like the duckling with both of hands opened widely.

After escaped from beach, he walked to the playground. There were slide and swing.

Before that we were wondering why other kids like so much the sand but not our boy. Well, this time we know why. He is such a boy who is fanatic about cleanliness. Still have long way to go right?

Wondrous experience - Butterfly Farm

Flutter ! Flutter ! Beautiful butterfly. Here we come.
We brought Ethan to visit the Penang Butterfly Farm.
This is Ethan's first trip to this infamous Butterfly farm. After taking our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we headed up to Penang Butterfly Farm. Reached there hour before lunch.
Bought the entrance ticket for 2 adults (children below 4 is free). Thus, Ethan is free of charge.

Ethan was extremely happily to see the butterflies flying around in the enclosed environment. There were a great different species of butterflies.

The enclosed environment is quite large, therefore Ethan was able to walk and run around. Apart from butterflies, there were other reptiles on display, such as scorpion, giant turtle, large earth worms, iguana, snakes, squirrel, beetles, large cicak, etc. Ethan was so happy to see the large cicak and kept on saying, "cak, cak" - short for cicak.

Ethan feel very tired after visiting the butterfly farm. Laying down on the table during our lunch time at hotel restaurant.

Splash ! Splosh! Our little boy

We went for hotel stay for 3D2N at Golden Sand hotel "AGAIN".
Mummy was hoping that Ethan can take an afternoon nap in the hotel so that he will be bursting with energy when playing in the pool. But our son had fallen asleep in sitting position while mummy and daddy were chatting with each other on the way to hotel. Ethan woke up immediately when we entered the hotel. Mummy knew our boy will not sleep again.

We took a rest in the room because it was only nearly 3 pm in the afternoon and knowing that the sun was still shinning down the pool. We ordered room service of "Nasi Goreng Istimewa and mushroom soup". Filling full our stomach, we were ready to go swimming. Ethan was so excited and can't hardly wait for his daddy.

We let Ethan played in the kid's pool as he still had the phobia of swimming inside the big pool. He was having fun but both of his parent feel like BBQ in the open air. Hot! Hot! The first thing that came into mother's mind. What to do. Beside this pool is the sliding pool. Few foreigner's kids were sliding in the pool. Ethan was so amazed with the kids till his eyes cannot get away from watching them. He wanted to try to slide by walking up the staircase followed by daddy. Then daddy showed him that the slide is high and too dangerous for him. So after he witnessed by himself, he just let go of the idea of sliding down into the water. Well, there was one foreigner's kids about 5 years old asked mummy to let Ethan try the slide. But mother didn't want to freak out our son until next time he totally doesn't want to swim inside the pool. The kid borrowed Ethan's swimming ring but our little one was yelling and protesting. The kid asked mother what Ethan wants. Mummy had to tell the truth that Ethan doesn't want to share his swimming ring as he was still struggling to get it back. Well, the kid just returned it to our boy.

Worm ! Worm ! where is my bookworm

For quite some time mummy didn't read books together with our little Ethan. Gradually seems like our little one has lost interest in books. After mummy observed for few days, few factors were understood:
i) Books factor
- The old books were boring to him. In order to appeal our little boy again mummy should add some new books for him.

ii) Environment factor
- Since we bought the radio for Ethan, he will turn on the radio whenever he enters the room. Well, this actually also help our little one in improving his listening skill. He got few favorite advertisement songs, like the Osim, pop etc.

iii) Human factor
- recently mummy was so lazy to read books together Ethan. Mummy only busy browsing the internet. Mummy really feel guilty about it. Mummy found out that Ethan loves to do things together with his parents. Only his parents didn't want to entertain him. Bad parent are we?

After bath in this morning, mummy turned down the sound of radio (Ethan refused to let people switch off the radio) and hope that she can spend some time with our little boy in reading books. Mummy put Ethan on her lap and we read the books together. Hooray! We made it. Mummy and Ethan have some fun time reading few books then later Ethan just walked away. Mother regretted that we left behind. What to do but to have to start all over again, right.

Later mummy face started to smile again as Ethan he took his initiative to take the books and read again even when it was an old book.

Hi ! I'm Ethan

After having had dinner and completely washed all the plate, we as a family laid on the chair relaxing and tasting some fruits. Ethan was playing the pointing game. As he pointed to daddy he called "papa" and when he pointed to mummy he called "mama" then the miracle part was he pointed to himself and called "Ethan". First few times we didn't realized that he was calling himself as daddy keep on saying what is Ethan saying? Then finally mummy spot that Ethan is calling himself as "Ethan". We were so please and excited to know this. Well, we actually didn't teach him about who he is.

Actually besides this, Ethan might know the word "Ethan" due to mummy's homemade books. In order to let Ethan learn up the words fast, the books have storyline Ethan's daily life. When he was small whenever he saw the pictures in the books, he will always point to himself (that time he still cannot talk yet). Every sentences I start with "Ethan was ....."

Even though Ethan still hasn't form a sentences but he was starting to form the couplets like two apples, red ball , papa chair etc.

Ethan daily Menu

Why Ethan eats lots of food but still cannot gradually gain weight?

Wakes up at early in the morning around 5 or 6am, feed him 6oz of milk and 2oz of water

Breakfast Menu:
- One bowl of cereal around 7 or 8am

Before taking a nap drinks 6oz of milk plus water at 10 or 11am

Lunch Menu:
- One bowl of rice with fish, vegetable, carrot and soup (sometimes add in egg or taufu or crab meat)

Don't have tea time because Ethan wakes up almost at 3 pm

Dinner menu:
- One bowl of rice with same ingredient as lunch menu
- One cup of yogurt
- Ice cream
- Fruit

Before sleeping at night 6oz of milk and water around 8.30 or 9pm

Is it something wrong with mother's menu? Well almost all the food is using one method, ie steam.

Look at me! I so skinny.....

Coloring

Ethan gradually improves his coloring skill. At least now he can color the center of the picture instead of just simply scribbling around the whole paper. This is one of his master piece.

Mummy will print out more coloring pages for Ethan to practice his hand skill. Previously heard one of the kindergarten teachers said that at Ethan's age their homework in kindergarten mostly is coloring. Main purpose is to strengthen their hands muscle in order to prepare them for writing skills. Actually mummy already completed 20 booklets of coloring for Ethan which has got more than 100pages of coloring waiting for Ethan. However, mummy has to sort it out as some of the photos are very complicated. Maybe mummy will start with the shape coloring.

Ethan still keep on practicing his bike

Finally I need to rest while riding my converter walker! So short my walker as compare to my bike

New bike

Ethan got his new bike.
We, parent took the opportunity to buy it in Guar Chempedak as it was cheaper (only mother's opinion as maybe some parents can find cheaper one in other places). There are a lot of different bikes. Some are red, purple, dark blue in color. Well, we chose this yellow and blue bike as it seems to be bright in color. Other one like purple and pink design seems a bit girlish which I don't think it is suitable for Ethan.

Seems like Ethan still cannot master this new bike due to the fact that the bike is higher and Ethan has got some difficulty in getting up and down from it. His legs is just enough to pedal one round which he found not comfortable. Maybe later he will love it. Just need to give him some time.

Before I have my own bike, I use to ask people to put me in the big bike

Ethan and his monkey (in the front basket)