Disney California Adventure

Date: May 13, 2009

We've been telling Ethan that we'd visit Disneyland again and see Mickey and friends. He got excited, he then told us what he saw the last time we went there.
Ethan said: mickey...minnie...pluto....desy....goofy...bye-bye....(he remembered the parade that we saw and us waving goodbye to those characters as the parade ended the last time we visited Disneyland).

This time, we visited the Disney California Adventure.
The theme park is not as big as Disneyland, in fact it's much smaller. We were having a difficult time at first getting Ethan to entar live perfomance shows. He got scared, i don't know why, he just didn't like seeing live on stage shows. He cried and asked us to get out when we wanted him to see Playhouse Disney show. Thank God he enjoyed "Aladin". That show was a 1 hour show and it was beautiful. I recommend to see Aladin show when you visit Disney California Adventure. I think this was the highlight of our trip.

For sure, we'd come back again to Disneyland, i'm not sure about going back to CA Adventure though.

When Ethan is 2 years old and 2 weeks

Spelling
Ethan can spell more letters now. Last night, as we finished eating dinner at a pho restaurant, we took a walk down the restaurant complex. I tested him to spell the letters from the display words from the stores’ windows. He managed to spell a few of them correctly. Ex: A, B, C, D, E, F, M, H, O,...

Wait and stand in Line
Ethan understands when mommy told him to wait. He’s learning to stand in line now.

Saying 2 words
The most often phrase would be: mommy come, papi come, nai-nai come!

Understand us better
Ethan can understand pretty much what we say to him. Ex: Ethan, ride on your stroller when we arrive at the market, okay. And he replied: No, walk! He can now hold onto our hands when we walk in public places. He was not able to do this before,

Good appetite
Ethan looks chubbier nowadays. We just love to “cubit-cubit paha” Ethan. He also enjoys when we “cubit-cubit paha”-nya.

Make own story
Ethan would speak in his language and end the sentence in an understand word: Ex: “(gibberish talking)….No”. “(gibberish talking)….Okay”. “(gibberish talking)….tung-tung (hurt)”.

Imitate everything
I mean everything.. yeahhh….! He’s learning by watching us.

Remember directions
He knows which way to go to Ernie’s house (he’s our neighbor son). He knows which way to turn when mommy drives Nai-Nai to adult school (he sees the school on his left side and point it to that direction).

Learn to bath by himself
He can wet himself from hair to toe by using “gayung”.

Begin to understand there’s hot and cold
Before Ethan says “dingin” (meaning cold) to any temperature. Now he can say hot and cold.

Help Mommy and Nai-Nai buy grocery
Ethan can get the milk, bread and prepackaged chicken and put them into the trolley.

2nd year old check up

Ethan and I saw Ethan's new pedic doctor at Diamond Bar Kaiser Permanente Clinic yesterday for his 2 years old check up. We transferred from Baldwin Park to Diamond Bar since it's much closer to our house. I am so grateful for this new clinic which just opened last year. It makes my driving much more convenient.

Check up was good.
Height: 34.5" (50 - 70% growth percentile)
Weight: 33.2 lbs (95% growth percentile), Doctor told me to start giving Ethan 2% reduced fat milk since Ethan has gained a lot of weight over the last 6 months.

Doctor also ordered Ethan's 1st blood test for anemia. We went to the lab. The nurse that drew Ethan's blood was VERY unprofessional. To begin with, he made Ethan scared of him by the way he talked to Ethan. We needed to draw 2 tubes of blood. The 1st tube was fine and when we got to the 2nd tube somehow the blood was not flowing fast enough to fill the 2nd tube and Ethan was crying and struggling the whole time. The nurse began to pinch Ethan's upper arm expecting the blood to flow faster, didn't work. He somehow began to pull out the needle just a bit away, then inserted a bit deeper. THAT MUST HURT! Then after it's all finished, the nurse told me that the 2nd tube might not be enough. If it's not enough, Ethan has to go back and draw the blood again. Then he asked me if i wanted to have him take the blood one more time just in case the 2nd tube is not enought and i said: NO MY SON IS IN PAIN.

Ethan stopped crying as soon as I held him in my arms and walked away from the nurse. Ethan even said bye-bye to the nurse as we exited the lab room. My son can still be polite to him after that horrible blood draw experience.

At home, Ethan told Nai2 what happened.
Ethan: "Nai-Na..tung-tung (pain/hurt), Om (a man).." as he pointed to his left arm.
Translation: Nai-na....i'm hurt by a man.

More pictures of my 2nd birthday

I am TWO years old

Date: May 24th, 2009
Location: Toddler class as IEC Church
Height: 34.5"
Weight: 33 lbs

More pictures from Disneyland

1 day before turning 2 years old

When Ethan met Terrance for the 1st time

Location: Battambang Restaurant
Occasion: Celebrating Mommy's 30th birthday
Thank you for visiting us. Until we meet again...

Celebrating Mommy's B'day

Date: May 14th, 2009
Location: Home

Counting my blessings

Yesterday as I was feeding Ethan and was talking to Nai2, Irealized that God has blessed us with such a good kid. God has given us a happy, active and healthy son. God has blessed Ethan with wonderful characteristics (happy all the time, friendly, always greets people at the church, giving them High Five, rarely cries and throws tantrum).

I thank God that can still feed Ethan on his high chair. Nowadays is even easier to get him into his high chair since he would climb onto the chair and put on the seat belt by himself while mommy or nai2 prepares food for him. He's also learning to buckle his seat belt in the car. I thank God that Ethan still sits on his high chair during feeding time.

I thank God for having a son who does not let his mommy get out of his sight even for a bit. Although. it can be annoying sometimes but Yes, Ethan loves mommy that much :)

I thank God that Ethan listens to us and does not throw tantrum when mommy/papi does not let him to do this and that. We explain to him why, comfort him and give him something else for him to play with.

Ethan has been a good boy, a very good boy actually. We thank God for that.

Craig National Park part II (05.16.09)

Craig National Park (05.16.09)

6 days away from turning 2 years old

Our sweet Ethan is turning 2 years old this Sunday, May 24th, 2009.

We are so excited to celebrate his 2nd birthday at Disneyland. We bought the 2fer ticket (buy 1 ticket for 2 entrance).

As Ethan approaches his 2nd year birthday, here's what we notice out of his development:

1. Playing with other kids (he starts to share his toys, play and show affectionate to younger kids). If he forgets, we'll remind him again and again.

2. Understands most of our conversation with him. We communicate better.

3. Follows our instructions and answers our questions correctly most of the time.

4. Still loves playing ball. He kicks hard with his right foot & kicks the ball up high in the air. He can do this with big and small balls.

5. Starts humming nowadays

6. Poses for the camera (silly, Ethan).

7. Takes off his shoes and takes down his pants.

8. Still drinks milk at night time. (I tried so many times but Ethan still needs his milk at least 1x/night)

9. Takes 2 1/2 hours nap time everday. If he gets really tired, he would nap for 3 hours.

10. Walks up the stairs by holding his milk bottle on 1 hand and up he goes. Walks down by holding the stair rail. But if he's in a hurry, he would be on his tummy strolling down the stairs.

11. Brushing his teeth with our help (it's quite a struggle to brush his teeth).

12. Repeats after us ALL THE TIME.

13. Remembers what snack that mommy gave Ethan a week before and asked for it again the week after that (it happened last Sunday at the Church). Mommy gave Ethan 'Astor' snack last week from Church kitchen cupboard while waiting for the mother's day performance to begin. When we were at the Church kitchen yesterday, Ethan asked me to open the kitchen cupboard as he remembered that Mommy gave him 'Astor' snack out of that cupboard last week.

14. Gets excited of things related to Birthday". He began to understand the meaning of 'Happy Birthday'. A birthday means there would be a b'day cake, blowing candle and saying happy bday. Ethan got excited when he celebrated Papi's and Mommy's B'day. He got excited when he saw the b'day cake. He blew the candle (with our help, of course), said 'happy bday' and gave us kisses. We can't wait to celebrate his 2nd b'day.

We thank God for His love, blessings and protection towards Ethan everday.

Happy Mother's Day 2009

This year we celebrated at the Church (IEC Azusa). Silas had to go to Las Vegas that day. Therefore, it was just me, Ethan and Nai2. On Sunday, at the church, friends greet happy mother's day to me and shake hand. Ethan observed this and practiced it home.
Ethan: "epi mama dei"
Then he shakes his hand, says thank you (taki) and walks away.

Here's 2 awesome photos captured by our friends at the church.

The Meaning of I Love You

These past 2 days, I received something special from Ethan, a kiss. It happened last night and 2 nights ago as we were on the bed, getting ready to sleep. Ethan was on the bed, drinking his milk and I was cleaning myself up before getting into bed. When I finished, I sat down on the bed and Ethan was getting up and walked towards me then kiss me on my cheek. I was surprised to get the kiss, since it was always us asking Ethan to kiss us that he would then give us kisses. But these 2 past nights, he has been giving me kisses without being instructed to do so. Silas and I have been teaching Ethan to say I love you and we say that all the time to him. I guess, Ethan starts to understand the meaning of I love you. Thank you for the kiss and Mommy loves you too.

Ethan & Elmo

Elmo Visitation

Visiting Elmo

Easter Celebration 2009

Egg Hunt :

At Mommy and Me Class
Ethan didn't understand how to participate and collect the eggs. What he did was everytime he saw eggs, he kicked them (he thinks that those are balls).

At Diamond Bar Pantera Park
We were too late coming there but we did get a few eggs. Again, Ethan played with the eggs by kicking them. But this time, he accidently stepped on the eggs and cracked open the eggs. He discovered something inside the eggs (which is candy/chocolate). Then he began cracking the eggs by stepping on them. hahahahaha....

At IEC Sunday School
Each kid was supposedly limit their self to 7 eggs, but Ethan collected more than that. Mommy was happy UNTIL... he poured out the eggs that he had collected and emptied his bag.

Conclusion: Ethan does not understand about egg hunting on Easter celebration yet. But at least he had lots of fun, especially at Pantera Park.

Ethan at 22.5 months old

Papi's Birthday Pictures

We celebrated Papi's birthday at Tan Cang Restaurant on 04/01/09.

Creative teaching that didn't work

I've been teaching Ethan to do puzzles and he can do the animal shapes, object shapes & is still learning to do the alphabet puzzle. Since Ethan's a very active boy, it's rather hard for me to sit him still and finish his puzzle. When he can't put in the puzzle and became impatient with it, he would just walk away from it or start kicking the puzzles. Therefore, i used this teaching method: i put his best friend "Winnie the Pooh doll" next to him and tell him that Pooh will help Ethan doing his puzzle. Whenever he's having trouble doing the puzzle, i would have Pooh help him with the puzzle. Until last night, when we were doing puzzle, Ethan was only doing 1 piece of puzzle and he got up and said : pooh...pooh...pooh....he didn't want to finish the puzzle and asked pooh to finish the puzzle instead. oh myyyy....was it my creative teaching method that didn't work out or was it Ethan that's always full of ideas and tricks and somehow managed to be creative?

Early Reading

Last week, we discovered that Ethan started his early reading:

The Letter "O"
Nai-nai was giving Ethan a drink from a glass of water. She was bending down and suddenly Ethan said : "O" and pointed to the letter O that he saw on Nai-Nai t-shirt.

The Letter "M"
We were at LAX airport on 04/02/09, dropping off Papi for his business trip to Taiwan. After checking in & baggage screening, we went to the 2nd floor and walked around the food court. We bought Ethan a $.99 MacDonald ice cream. As he was running around in front of the MacDonald stand, he said "M" (he saw the MacDonald's logo and read it out loud).

April 1, 2009

Papi turned 29 years old today.

And here's Ethan & I's prayer for him on his birthday:

God continues to bless you, keeps you safe and guides you in His ways.
God gives you good health.
God gives you wisdom to be a good father for Ethan and a good husband for Angel (a.k.a Mommy)
God gives you wisdom to lead our family according to His will.
God gives you strength to be the head of our family.
God gives you strength to be the man of His words.

Amen.

Ethan at 22 months old

Two more months until Ethan reaches his 2 years old mark. Woww...time surely does fly. We have enjoyed every moment with Ethan. God has been keeping Ethan safe and healthy. We pray that God will continue to bless him with good health (body and mind) and protects him whereever he is. We also pray that Ethan will accept the Lord as his personal savior one day and to follow & serve Him faithfully.

Ethan starts to recognize colors (blue, red, yellow, green and purple). He is able to sort the colors on his block puzzle. Every week, he is able to say new vocab and he's getting clearer in pronouncing his vocabs. We communicate better and he understands about everything that we say and tell him to do. Ethan sure does talk a lot and he loves to tell us what he's done and what happens around him (of course still babbling).

He still loves to play ball. He can kick the ball up high now.

At 22 months old, here's a list of Ethan's favorite toys:

1. Ball (soft, hard, small, big, with sound, without sound)
2. Pooh watermelon doll (he loves his pooh doll, he hugs and kisses it)
3. Sleep tight Elmo story book
4. Elmo & Donald Duck DVD
5. Cars

We love you Ethan.

Learning to eat

We went to this ramen restaurant in Hacienda Heights for dinner. It was crowded. I guess we waited for at least 40 minutes before we can get a seat. This restaurant was referred by my husband's co worker. He told Silas that this would be the place to get the best ramen. After we tasted the ramen, we actually like Hakata Ramen better. We are not going back to this restaurant again since it's quite expensive and they charge 18% service tax. However, we captured Ethan enjoyably eating his snacks by himself on camera. And that would be the highlight for the night.

Thomas The Train

Ethan starts to love Thomas The Train. Here's a visit to Toy's R Us where he plays with Thomas the Train for most of his time there.

Bowling at ChuckeCheese

We went to Chino ChuckeCheese to celebrate Abigail Kusdono's 2nd birthday party on 02/28/09. Ethan had a blast playing bowling there. However, he does not like Mr. ChuckeCheese. He is afraid of him somehow.

In & Out French Fries

Enjoy like Ethan did :)

Back in Stroller

Since we came back from Indonesia, pho2 suggested us to teach Ethan to sit on his stroller again whenever we go out so we won't have to chase Ethan all around the stores that we visit. We trained him again to sit on his stroller and it worked. Ethan can sit still on his stroller when we go shopping and do groceries. We keep his favorite snack food, cherios handy to entertain him while he's on his stroller. Before, it was really a struggle to make him sit on his stroller. We practically didn't use his stroller again after he turned 1 years old. Thank God we can use the stroller again now.

21.5 months old

Ethan has been growing and developing really well, we thank God for all His blessings and love towards Ethan. He's getting mature everyday. One thing that we notice differently is his communication skills. We can communicate with him & we understand each other very well nowadays. Ethan speaks and repeats after us all the time. He learns new vocabs from his videos, books and us. He can do what we instruct him to do and help around the house with home chores; helping and learning at the same time. He has fun and mommy gets her chores done too and that means everybody is happy!

His soccer skill is getting better also. He can kick the ball just by bouncing the ball onto the floor and kick it. Just like that. He can kick the ball up high now, knock things down here and there once in a while. Watch out there! Really...his kick is pretty strong for a 21.5 months old toddler.

Ethan also weanes off the bottle now. Sleep more comfortably thru the night with 1 milk time and 1 diaper change. And i can drive by myself with Ethan sitting on the car seat (just the 2 of us), getting errands done, go to his class and the library, as long as the trip is not that far and he's not hungry or sleepy.

Ethan also understands when he does something bad then he will get lectures from mommy/papi/nainai. He pauses and starts crying (not real cry), but it was more 'to get our attention' cry so he can be excused. That kind of cry. Then he tests our limit by doing his mistake again. We start lecturing him again and try to calm him down, pick him up, hold him and try to distract him with another activities or toys.

Another improvement that Ethan's achieved is that he can focus doing 1 thing in a longer period of time. Before, he just can't sit still (well, he still is actually, but better now than before) and has short period of focusing on doing 1 thing. Now, he can explore his books, toys and play with them, even talk to them (pretending that his dolls are his friends), we do this pretend play to explore his imagination and he does talk to them. It's so funny.

Ethan can also hold his pencil color correctly and he can scriblle a little bit. Before, he would just play with his pencils and make a mess on the floor. This drawing thing is actually Ethan's only activity that relates to art. He doesn't really do finger painting (it's too messy) and he doesn't like play dough at his mommy and me class.

Anyway...we look forward to many more learning experiences and achievements with Ethan.