Family Photo - All Dressed Up

This is a picture of all of us at the church wedding of Ethan's Xiao Shu (i.e. Benjamin's younger brother) and Aunty JH in January. Ethan was the page boy while his cousins, Janelle and Janine, were the flower girls. Based on the one and only rehearsal we had earlier in the week, we were highly doubtful about Ethan's "performance" on the actual day. But with much pep talk and bribes.. erm .. I mean "encouragement" (in the form of sugar-coated fruit gummies, courtesy of Uncle Royston who is somewhat of an expert in the art of "encouragement"), he surprised all of us by walking AND smiling AND holding the ring pillow nicely all at the same time. He even tried to clap, with ring pillow and all, when he saw that everyone around him was clapping once he stepped into the sanctuary. But in our enthusiastic bid to get him to walk down the aisle, we clean forgot to tell him what he should do AFTER he walks down the aisle. So he just stood there and blocked everyone else in the bridal procession until his daddy stretched out his arm and pulled him aside. But we're real proud of him anyway. He really surprises us sometimes. :)

Ethan and Chor Chor

School

It has been about 1.5 months since ethan started school. After the initial separation anxiety which consisted of moist eyes and some apprehension (I, not him) and loud wailing and tight clinging (this would be him) which lasted abt 3 days, he took off beautifully. I don't quite remember myself going off to school each day with such anticipation, except perhaps for the time when I had my eyes on a certain boy with initials B.K. in school many years ago.. :)

Anyway, every weekday, ethan wakes up at about 7.30am, has breakfast, brushes his teeth, wears his school uniform and carries his schoolbag ready to leave for school by 8.15am. (That's the good thing about going to a school just around the corner. If ethan wakes up late, we can still get to school on time by leaving home just 5 mins before school starts by carrying him and running very fast). Ben and I will walk ethan to school, drop him off at the main door at which he'll give each of us a big hug and trot off happily to class. Then Ben will walk to the MRT to catch the train to work while I go marketing/go home to do some work/go eat breakfast somewhere/go to the Botanic Gardens for some exercise depending on which day of the week it is.

Ethan has been learning quite a bit at school, like the days of the week and some Chinese words , phrases and songs. Just yesterday while I was trying to put him to nap, he suddenly recited a poem to me in great earnestness:

Some families are big

Some families are small

But I love my family the best of all.

Then he said I love you Mummy and smothered me with many wet, smelly kisses. :)

The Way With Books

Ethan loves books. Not only reading them, which he does quite often and can do so quietly on his own for a long time, but also throwing them about, tearing them (I just used up 1/3 of a roll of tape putting together one particular book a couple of days ago. I should post a picture of that book. It doubled in volume by the time I was done with it.) or putting them in a heap.

At 10 months. Thought it was quite cute.

At 2.5 years. Not thinking that it's so cute anymore.. cos he has many more books now and I have to sit with him and make him put it back one by one which takes a really long time because every book that he picks up, he will browse through it and appear to be deciding whether to read it or not.

On the topic of making a mess, Ethan was alone in his room this morning and we could hear him throwing some of his toys around. Benjamin told me later that he saw ethan standing on his bed looking out of the window when he went in to check on him. He thinks ethan might have thrown something out of the window but we don't know what. Hope we don't get a visit from the police anytime soon.

Ethan Meets His Cousins

You might realise that so far, there have not been any pictures of Ethan with his cousins. Not that he does not have any. In fact, he has three lovely cousins. Just that they live in Sydney and Ethan has not really met them yet (actually, he did, briefly, when he was abt 6 months, when they were back for a short while but I'm sure Ethan does not have any memory of it). Anyway, they are back for a visit and we are really happy to see them again and to spend time with them.

Ethan with cousins Janelle and Janine at the family portrait photo shoot for the occasion of the wedding of Ethan's Xiao Shu. By the way, he absolutely hates the bow tie.

Chasing bubbles at the Botanic Garden (the boy in the hat is a friend of his cousins)

Cute-as-a-button Cousin Josiah

Day at the zoo. The last time we went to the zoo was on his 1st birthday. I think he enjoys it much better now that he's older. The animal he was most fascinated with - the monkeys especially those that pee-pee while swinging about in mid-air (not a good role model for a little boy who is undergoing toilet training)

Heaven

Ever since he learnt about the Wordless Book in one of his sunday school lessons (and also after I went through the book with him at home a few times after that lesson), ethan has been talking about wanting to go to heaven (which is symbolized by the gold page, for those familiar with how the book works).

One wet morning a couple of days ago, we had this conversation.

Ethan: Want to go heaven.
Me: Yes, what do you have to do to go to heaven?
Ethan: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Me: Yes, that's right.
Ethan: want to go heaven. Daddy, Mummy and Yi Yi also.
Me: yes, we do. We are all going to heaven.
Ethan: But it's raining.

Something tells me that I'm not teaching it right.

Friends!

Sabo-ed

My dad called me up one evening when ethan was at his Gong Gong and Po Po's place. My dad wanted to check something out with me after having the following conversation with the boy who had been coughing quite a bit that day.

Gong Gong: ethan boy, how come you are coughing?

ethan: mummy give ice-cream

The thing was that I (actually, it was the husband) did give him some ice-cream just the evening before when he had NOT (of course) been coughing.

Just the day before....

Funny Sunnies

I love putting sunglasses on ethan and he quite willingly lets me do so.

How can a cute face like that do the naughty things that he does?

Well, I don't know. But he sure does them!

Dating 101 - What Not To Say

While having breakfast with ethan one weekday morning at Holland V, an impossibly pretty 3-year-old came over to talk to him.

Girl: What is your name?
Ethan: I am two years old.
(ethan's mummy slaps her forehead with palm at this point)
Me: Erm... his name is Ethan.
Girl: Is he a baby?

Fail la.

At the Marina Barrage

We made a trip to the Marina Barrage on a whim a couple of Saturdays ago. It was our first time there. There were not many people around while we were there and we rather enjoyed ourselves.

The husband could not resist posing for this.

He also could not resist making me pose for this.

We couldn't resist taking this shot of ethan who just happened to be standing there like that when we took the picture. :)

Ethan's Two!

No big party this year. Just a few small celebrations with people he loves and who love him. We thank God for His gracious hand in raising Ethan up to be the happy, inquisitive and quirky little boy that he is. We pray that the Lord will continue to help Ethan to grow up to love, trust, fear and obey Him.

An early birthday celebration with his Sunday School friends.

Ethan really looks forward to going for Sunday School every week. He especially loves the singing (and the snack time, if there's one :)

Lunch with Mummy and Po Po at Junction 8 on the actual day.

Ethan having a special treat of Mixed Berry Pocky. Pocky is one of his (many) favourite things to eat.

Yi Yi specially delivered this to Ethan on his birthday. (By the way, it has been more than a week and the balloon is still floating.)

A small family gathering on the day after Ethan's birthday.

Blessed 2nd Birthday, Ethan! You are much loved. :)

Lovely Koh Samui - What We Ate

One of the fun things we got to do at Koh Samui was to explore the streets for places to eat. There were so many eating places offering so many different kinds of food that we had a hard time deciding at times. But these were what we did eventually try...

Recommended by Lonely Planet. Food looks good, tastes good and pretty good value except that I threw up whatever i ate (mostly pad thai) that evening. Definitely did not sit well with me. But thank God that I felt much better pretty quickly and that Ben was unscathed. Still don't know what exactly was in the pad thai that caused the terrible discomfort...

Ethan knocked out from the morning spent at the beach.

Ethan still knocked out while daddy and mummy enjoy a cold mango gelato in the hot hot sun.

Complimentary dinner at the Amari

Ethan at breakfast - dipping EVERYTHING into jam

lunch at the Red Snapper

Dinner by the beach. The entire stretch of beach was lined with restaurants and eateries all specially set up and decked out for people to dine at in the evening. The delightful thing was the effort and creativity that each eatery put into decorating and laying out their place - twinkling fairy lights, glowing lanterns, lounge chairs (for those who would like to recline while eating), live music, table candles, flowing fabrics etc.. No two eateries were the same and all equally lovely. We had fun just strolling along the beach (it was a very long stretch of beach) and taking in the sights. We chose a quaint little restaurant in the end for our dinner and had a really nice time.

Also recommended by Lonely Planet. :) We liked it so much we ate there twice.

Lovely Koh Samui: Where We Stayed and What We Did

Ahh...Lovely Koh Samui indeed.. The 3 of us made our way to the beautiful island last monday and spent a wonderful week there enjoying the sun, the sea, the sand, the people, the food, the culture and time together as a family. It was our first time there and I must say, it made quite an impression on us. We are thinking of moving there for good and maybe sell chicken rice. Only thing is that we don't know how to cook chicken rice. Or perhaps we could sell bubble tea... we don't recall anyone selling that there.... Hmm...

Where We Stayed

The lovely Amari Palm Reef resort. We Like.

Where we have breakfast every morning

Ethan- very pleased with the room.

Things We Did

Looking at the little fish and hermit crabs in the sea.

Ethan holding on to a little piece of coral he found.

We love the beach!

Ethan kayaking for the first time (or rather daddy was doing the kayaking while ethan and his mummy were enjoying the ride). Mummy was on the verge of a heart attack most of the time as Ethan kept wanting to stand up and look over into the water which rocked the boat somewhat. Mummy thought she was being very clever when she used the explanation "But ethan, if you keep standing up, we will all fall into the water. Do you want to fall into the water?" to which Ethan said yes.

Ben and I took turns going for a complimentary Thai massage at the resort spa.

I went for another one on the morning of the day we were to return. It was at one of the many beach side massage places. Nice!

Lounging around

We walked along the streets of the main town (just a short distance from our resort), looking for places to eat or to look at what the shops had to offer.

We rented a car and drove around the island to explore. (Do you know that there are just 4 traffic lights in Koh Samui?)


Stay tuned for our next post - Lovely Koh Samui: What We Ate