Christmas & New Year Greetings!

Picture by InspredbyGavin

With all good wishes for Christmas and every happiness for the coming year!!

From Alvin, Joyce & Ethan

If you want to see more pics of us by Inspiredbygavin see here, here and here :)

Note: This is a sticky note - kindly scroll down for new entries.

Family pictures 2009

I've always wanted to take family pictures by a professional photographer ever since the birth of Ethan but have not got the chance to really look into it til my dear friend Glo approached me recently. She asked me if we would like our family pictures to be taken by her...At that instant I was thinking, hey what better time to take family pictures then now especially when Christmas is just round the corner. So without much thinking I said yes!! And soon after we've set a date (29th Nov) and time for the photo shoot. See some of the awesome photos taken by Glo below :)

All photos taken by inspiredbygavin.com

More pictures in my Facebook ;p (photos are still being added...)

FYI, photography has been Glo's hobby for years now but it was only recently (you could read how she ended up with this the idea on her website hehe..) that she has decided to take it to the next level i.e. turning her hobby into her own business.

Good news is, she's currently having a Year End Special Promotion packages for family photos and children party. I think it is one helluva bargain as the prices are really competitive!! I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed with her promotion offers! Trust me, you won't!! You could ask me or Glo directly.

Please do it pronto as her offers only valid til year end. Nevertheless, you can arrange for the pics to be taken between now til end of Feb 2010!!

My lil' musician

Like most kids, Ethan likes music instruments ... including violin which sometimes he will pretend to play when he hears the classical music I put on for baby#2 or certain songs... Drum is another instrument that seems to caught his interest...I initially wanted to get him a set as Xmas gift but we changed our mind after the 'noise pollution' he made at MIL's using a plastic soup spoon & a big empty water container a couple of months ago...don't think it will be a good idea especially when baby #2 arrives ;p He will also pretend to play piano on MIL's dressing table or on a box at times.

At home, he only has his guitar and xylophone as music instruments but he broke his guitar a few weeks ago. We intentionally did not want to get him a new guitar as a lesson for him so that he will know how to appreciate and look after his toys. But he is one lucky boy as he got a special surprise from one of this grand uncles from hubby's side two Sundays ago. His grand uncle Edward & family just got back from a family vacation and bought Ethan a really cool guitar from Cebu...and guess what, not only did Ethan got a new guitar but he was able to play with 2 other guitars belongs to his lil' Aunt Katherine and another one of his grand uncle Edward's guitars too! Aren't he lucky?! ;p

Hubby's uncles especially from his mom's side are music incline lot. They love to sing and they can easily form a band. His Uncle Edward is one of them who loves to sing and plays the guitar well and our Ethan has always been a great fan of his :)

Ethan with grand uncle Edward and his brand new guitar...unlike his broken toy guitar, this one looks like a real guitar with real guitar strings and all :)

Notice the way he holds the guitar...not so pro yet eh ;p

This cute pink guitar belongs to his 11 yrs old Aunt Katherine...see how he holds the guitar now...looks more like a pro hehehe...
Another small guitar belongs to his grand uncle Edward...

And what happened after all that hard work of plucking 3 guitars??... a blistered finger of course which Ethan thought was a sticker 'stucked' on his index finger though he did said 'pain, pain' when he showed it to us hehehe...and for the past 1 week although it is almost completely healed...he will still repeatedly 'report' to us about his lil' wound so we can blow and kiss it better ..such a 'drama boy' eh ;p

X'mas Carols by Candlelight

Joining big bro & family, we attended the 10th Annual Amazing Carols by Candlelight at Sutera Harbour in aid of Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd. Luckily the afternoon rain stopped before the event started otherwise we would have cancelled our plan. Anyway, overall the event was okay. Despite being a lil' bit too warm to my liking under the huge tent, we enjoyed the Xmas Carols. Ethan of course was more interested with the surroundings whereby as usual, poor hubby had to keep an eye and chase after him most of the time. Ethan did sit still or stay put for about an hour or so though. That's when I finally bought him the little fan with the 'lighted' wordings on it and when everybody were asked to light their candles for the special candlelight carolling moment ;p

Big bro & his family

Finally he is able to stay put...

We thought this curious cat would not notice the carollers on the stage ;p

Resting time for hubby as Ethan finally sat still on his lap...

BUT not for long...here him starting to roam around again...

Fun filled public holiday

During the recent Hari Raya Haji break, we brought Ethan for a day out at 1Borneo to let him enjoy himself at the Boo Boo Land. Enjoy he certainly did, but not so much at the Boo Boo Land but more at the arcade games area where he sat for about an hour just playing with the car racing games. Of course we didn't spent a single cent as for now he is happy enough with just toying with the car wheels and 'changing' the gears ;p We did managed to coaxed and tricked him to go down to Boo Boo Land for some fun rides but to him it wasn't as fun as the car racing games so we were finally able to bring him out from there.

We then proceed to a pet shop on the first floor which caught my attention a few days earlier as they have a few dogs either inside the cage or running freely in the shop. I thought it would be interesting for Ethan to see those cute doggies and of course his mummy is fond of dogs too so why not kill two birds with 1 stone eh ;p He got so excited with the black poodle (I think its a poodle..) that he squealed in delight in his high pitched voice whenever he comes near it and he kept chasing after it too!!...Besides these two places, he enjoyed going up and down the escalators and wandering around the shopping mall. Poor hubby had to keep up with him :)

30 months

Ethan turns 2 years 6 months today. Although he doesn't really speak in complete sentences yet (except for some like 'keep the hat', 'keep there', 'open the door', 'what's that sound', 'who's that', etc) but he has shown improvements on his vocabs. He is able to identify more animals/objects/ shapes on his flash cards or books. In terms of colors he does seem to be able to tell red, blue, green and yellow although he gets confuse at times ;p He doesn't really know how to properly count his 123 but at least he seems to be able to differentiate between 1 and 2 now.

He is also able to 'sing' though not in full but rather bits and pieces of the songs or wordings of a few songs such as Twinkle-twinkle little star, O McDonald, London Bridge, ABC song, Itsy bitsy spider, and Row row row your boat and other songs that catch him fancy or any of his favourite cartoon programmes.

Food wise, he does take his vege and meat/fish but he can also be pretty choosy. He usually takes his fruits i.e. grapes (his fave), banana, papaya while having his lunch/ dinner which is unusual as most children or even adults will take only after meals hee... the cut fruits also serve as a bait to get him to eat his rice hehe.. He still loves only his milk (180ml 3-4 times/day) and water (which can be a lot!). He will however take a sip or two of other drinks but that's about it which I have no complain ;p For breakfast, he either takes Jacob biscuits, plain white/butter bread or buttered toasts, cheese, mini hash brown, noodles or porridge. I used to give him hard boiled eggs but he doesn't seem to like it now. We're grateful that he takes his vitamin c (crushed and with a bit of water on a spoon) and Scott Emulsion (original flavour okay...) daily without fail. When he got on the weighing machine recently the reading shows 17kg (with his sandal on though) !!??

Father & son bonding

Another much delayed entry ;p About 3 weekends ago, hubby's work place organized a X'mas cum Family Gathering at Sabah Borneo Paradise. It was a full day event but we had to leave around 2pm as Ethan was getting crankier as it was way passed his usual afternoon nap time. Anyway, I'm just going to show some pics of Ethan with hubby for that special father and son bonding moments. A treasure worth keeping ;p

6 months gone, 4 more to go!

Without realising it, I am now in my 24th week. How time flies and I kept thinking I was only 5 1/2 months until I checked my desk calender where I jotted down my pregnancy's age ;p No wonder I feel heavier, keep visiting the loo more often (no thanks to the distance we have to endure from our office to the ladies' room although I must say it is good exercise for me hee...), climbing up the staircase seems quite a struggle and even bending and sitting or lying in certain positions are becoming more uneasy nowadays...long walks can be exhausting too..but hey I know those are just signs that we will soon be welcoming our precious 2nd bundle of joy and I'm very much excited about it especially to see Ethan's reaction in meeting his lil' brother for the first time :)

So far I've been telling Ethan that he'll soon be a 'kor-kor' (big brother) to his lil brother which for now is till inside his mummy's stomach :) Sometimes when I asked him 'what's in mummy's stomach?', he will say, 'bb' and sometimes when he sees my stomach he will come and touch it and says 'big stomach' ;p Although he does seem to think there's bb in my stomach but I don't think he really understands what it means yet...perhaps I ought to show him some pics of baby inside a mother's stomach and show him pictures of newborn babies...hmmm... I wonder how other mothers tell their toddlers about upcoming new sibling...if you have some tips do share with me will you? :)

I'm supposed to pose this ultra scan pic last month but kept postponing it due to laziness ;p Anyway, here's baby#2 at 20 weeks 5 days.

You can see his 'lil birdie' in this pic :p

Our Xmas tree is up!!

After seeing Ethan showing quite an interest with a Christmas tree during a bazaar/garage sales in Lintas Plaza a few weekends ago, we've decided to put up our Christmas tree last Friday night... well, hubby and Lina our domestic helper did, I was in the bedroom with Ethan coz it was his bedtime hee...Anyway, hubby and myself wanted to surprise Ethan the next morning and we're glad we did especially seeing his happy reaction even with his beady and just woke up eyes and itchy back ;p

The X'mas tree at Lintas Plaza...
Doesn't he looked happy? :)

There goes the curious cat ;p
Still in awe even with his itchy back :)
Back still itchy ;p

He ain't scared

A couple of weeks ago, our domestic helper caught a big grasshopper at MIL's. After removing (ouch!) two of it's biggest legs, she handed the grasshopper to Ethan to see his reaction. Apparently unlike his mommy, he didn't feel icky or scared with it. In fact, he touched, carried and even tried to "squash" (unintentionally of course) the poor fella while playing with it...

Musikgarten: family music for toddlers

We've been wanting to enroll Ethan for some kind of activities to let him learn new things and at the same time to socialize with other children of his same age group. This is also to prepare him since we've decided to send him to playschool in January next year. Coincidentally one of my friends have suggested for me to enroll Ethan in Musikgarten since her son is also in it. She told me we could go for a trial which is only RM35 for 4 sessions. After discussing with hubby, we then decided it would be good for Ethan since he does seem to have some inclination towards music and songs.

We've so far brought him to 2 classes/ sessions. We've told ourself that for the first class he may not even bother to join the class which indeed was true except when the teacher started to bring out the music instruments. I think he only joined 1/4 of the whole 30 mins session that day ;p He was more busy running around the class then joining the other children singing and doing movements with the teacher. But the second session was even worst as he kept asking to go out from the classroom so that he could play outside!! We kept coaxing him to re-enter the class which he did but always end up asking us to let him out! But at least he joined for a short while when the teacher took out one of the music instruments and let him have a go ;p Oh well, we still have 2 sessions to let him try...I guess if he still doesn't seem to be interested to join the class we might postpone his actual enrollment to a later stage ..perhaps when he is more ready and after seeing his progress in his playschool ;p

Some of you may have heard of Musikgarten but for those who have not heard about it, Musikgarten is basically an early childhood music education for children from birth to age nine.

You may ask,

Why should I pursue early childhood music education for my child?

The answer given my Musikgarten is that:

"Music awakens and stimulates neural pathways in the brain that are associated with higher forms of intelligence, such as abstract thinking, empathy, mathematics and science. Music's melodic and rhythmic patterns provide exercise for the brain and help develop memory. Remember singing the ABC song to learn your ABC's? Studying music helps children establish good listening habits, which are essential for achievement in school. Overall, music activities are perfect for child development. Music immerses the child in language, evokes movement, stimulates the brain and fosters physical coordination - all in a group setting that builds community - a holistic experience."

Ethan falls under the 16 months to 3.5 years old category and below is the course content for his age group:

16 Months - 3.5 Years
Participate with your toddler for 30 minutes each week in singing, Chanting, moving, dancing, listening and playing simple instruments.

Musical play activities:
– Help develop a strong musical bond with your child and closer family ties.
– Bridge the natural connection between music and movement.
– Enhance your child’s musical aptitude and listening abilities.
– Lay the foundation for singing and vocal development, listening skills, and purposeful movement.

Features:
– Movement activities for coordination, body awareness, exploration of space, body control and the pure joys of movement.
– Folk songs for singing, dancing and listening.
– Focused listening examples from both daily life and music instruments.
– Instruments to explore: rhythm sticks, jingles, rattles, drums, and resonator bars.
– 4 wonderful semesters, each with a 60 minute CD, a parent activity book and an instrument or scarf to use at home.

Personally, I do feel this is a good programme as not only will it prepare the children for future music instruments classes. But the programme also encourages social skills, motor skills as well as helping the children to be more discipline.

Fingers crossed and hope Ethan will be more cooperative for the coming classes ;p and should you want to know more details about Musikgarten in KK, you can call 088-721733.

The pictures below were taken during his first session :)

While the rest were following the class, Ethan was busy inspecting the stuff inside the classroom ;p

He was quite happy to join when the teacher brought the xylophone out though ..but the teacher had to persuade him to return it to her so the others can have their turns heee...

You can see Ethan still wanted to play with it even though his turn was over hehehe...

Of labels and satin fabric

Like some children, Ethan has a thing about labels with satin texture or any satin like fabric...he loves to touch and feel the fabric especially when he is taking his milk or about to sleep. At times he will hold on to the ribbons of my tops or satin fabric on my dresses and will follow me around the house just so that he could touch and feel the smooth and soft satin texture. Sometimes he will even take my hand and leads me to the living room to sit on the sofa so he can enjoy the satin fabric without having to follow me around the house hehe... So in the end I asked my friend Zura to make him 2 satin blankies (so when it is time to do washing, he still have another one to play with...) with Elmo as the theme to satisfy his satin fetish ;p

Ethan calls his blankie 'Elmo' and will always ask for it when he drinks his water or milk and while watching the telly,

in the car...

..in the house...here him playing peek a...

booo!!...
..my one happy lil' boy :)