Blink Blink

1 year, 1 week & 1 day old.....

Ethan likes to blink his eyes when he's playful and even sometimes when I scold him. When you blink at him, he will repeat after you. We did not purposely teach him to blink like this. But I guess we did it unconsciously when we play with him. Some say ugly, some say funny. See for yourself lar......

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Update on Ethan (...continues)

1 year & 1 week old…..

This post is a little bit overdue. I’m supposed to post this on Ethan’s first birthday but didn’t manage to do so. Here are some updates:

Weight: 9.6 kg
Height: 73 cm (His paed said he’s not that tall wor..)

Diet:
- 7-8 am: bread with cheese/butter or biscuits
- 9 am: milk
- 11 am: Porridge
- 2 pm: milk
- 4 pm: porridge
- 6-7 pm: fruits/yogurt
- 8 pm: milk
- midnight: milk

Sleeping pattern
- Sleep at around 8-8.30 pm
- Wake up at around 7-8 am
- Wake up for one feeding, sometimes two.
- Like to sleep with his bottom up, like a frog.
- Turn 360 degree in his sleep. He will sit up and fall to the other direction.

Speech:
- mama = mummy
- day day day day day = daddy (don’t know why he has to repeat so many times)
- mum mum = food
- berd = bird
- ah ber = when he points to something
- uh! = no more (together with his wrist turning)
- UHHHHHH! = only do this at the lift lobby (testing the echo of his sound?)

Character:
- Warms up quite easily with strangers. He even plays peek-a-boo with strangers in the lift.
- Loves children.
- Difficult to take away something that he’s holding.

Bathing:
- At least twice a day.
- Must have a toy to play with while shower. Normally, it’s the shampoo container.
- Can use shower head and wash his hair like an adult.

Communication (can understand some words that we say):
- Kiss kiss: will open his mouth
- Barney: will stop crying immediately
- Give: he will give you things that he’s holding
- No: give you a blank face and sometimes blink and smile. (can consider understand ar?)
- Come: will crawl towards us
- Put inside: will put the stack rings properly & put things inside the box

Dexterity
- Able to stand unsupported for a few seconds, still lazy to walk.
- Play toys more appropriately e.g. stack rings, shape sorter (with some helps).
- Blink his eyes playfully.

(One of the few rare shots that we managed to capture)

PPP Direct

This is a sponsored post.

What is exciting about PPP Direct? It's certainly good news for bloggers who wants to make more money from PPP. Normally we just grab whatever opps offered by the advertisers. Now, with PPP Direct, the advertisers will come look for bloggers. They will directly approach you and get you to write special blog posts. You just need to specify the minimum amount you want to be paid for these Direct opportunities and stick a widget on your blog. When an advertiser finds your blog and decides they'd like you to write something they just click on the badge attached to the widget and make you an offer. The good thing is you don't have to be the first to grab the opps and yet you still get an offer at a price you want. Compared to other PPP Competitors, PPP Direct cuts out the massive overhead. Some competitors charge between 50-100% markup on your post, while PPP charge 35%. PPP Direct cuts out the middleman in transactions that are driven by your blog. They only charge a 10% service fee, and nearly 5% of that is PayPal and Credit Card Fees.

Update on Ethan

1 year & 3 days old........

The first thing I want to update is on teething. Ya, another teething crisis is on again since last week. He will cry in the middle of the night. He has actually adjusted to one midnight feeding at around 4 am. Ever since the starting of this teething crisis, he will wake up at around 11-12 midnight and cry.
Giver water - cry!
Give pacifier - cry!
Give milk - finish

He will sleep after drinking his milk and wake up again at around 4am. It's his normal feeding time, so ok. Just give milk. In between the feedings, he will go EHH! EHH! EHH! like once every hour with his eyes closed. Have to look for the darn pacifier and put into his mouth. Sometimes, he will throw the pacifier and cry! So, have to pat him back to sleep.

Last night was the worse. The teething gel given by his paed has to be discarded because Ethan punctured the tube with his teeth. We went out to buy Dentinox at the pharmacy after dinner . We brought Ethan along thinking that he will fall asleep in the car easier. NO! We gave him milk in the car before we get moving and he didn't sleep. Not a tiny bit of sign. He made so much noise when I went to buy the gel while they waited in the car. When I got back, he was all teary and I quickly applied the gel on his gum but it doesn't help. Still fussing. Once we reached home, I gave him water, tucked him to bed and he dozed off quickly. That was around 8.30 pm. Phew! Thought the cream helps. Dead wrong!

At 10.30 p.m. - WUAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Give pacifier - throw!
Give water - uekkk!
Pat his buttock - WUAHHHHHHHHHHH!
Give milk - finish
Give pacifier - WUAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Throw!
Pat his buttock - WUAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Wah..I was already boiling and boiling inside....can make soup already.
Want to scold - control.....control
Want to spank- cannot......
Still boiling.......

Hubby came to the rescue. He carry Ethan and try to pacify him. Still unsuccessful. In the end, hubby brought him out. Immediately after hubby opened the door, Ethan stop crying. He continue to sleep in the spring cot. Fine. I went back to sleep....@#$%!@#$#$.......Cannot sleep....
Blink...blink....blink - 11 pm
Blink...blink....blink - 12 pm, still cannot sleep
Blink...blink....blink - hubby brought Ethan in
Blink...blink....blink - 1 pm, hungry! drink milo & read magazine
Blink...blink....blink - 2 pm, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(Got this chart from Karen)

P/S: Like the way etc. mommy and malaika's mummy record the age of their babies on the post. It's easy to recall when did the things actually happened. Hope you all don't mind me doing the same way. (I'm no copycat..hehehehehe)

Ethan is One!

Yay! I’m happy. Really happy. I feel like Ethan is so grown up now. Like I’m going to have less worry about him not growing up well. It’s a big milestone for us MUMMIES. From the morning sickness to the swollen feet, back ache, 22 hours labour pain and finally the delivery. Those are just part of the long journey that we have endured. My friend told me once “You think life will get better as they grow. Nope. It’s just another level of complications.” I guess having a 3-year-old daughter makes her right. She’s been there done that.

The little one is getting more cheeky now. If you try to get something that he’s holding like an alarm clock, syringe, etc. he will go EHHHH! EHHHH! EHHHH! until you give up or distract him with something else. I always wonder when the “roll-on-the-floor-demanding-toys” day will come. I prepare myself for the day from the very beginning when I know that I’m having a boy. You always see boys doing that in the public when they don't get what they want. Being a hot-tempered person, I know I have to control myself should this happen one day in the shopping mall. No screaming, no spanking. Now, take a deep breath…..

A little update on Ethan......to be continued tomorrow. Taking half day leave.

Why Ethan James?

Pretty mama, Yvonne, tag me on this one. I think it's a good tag. All parents give names to their children for some good reasons. Sometimes, a good name may sound funny when it's pronounced wrongly, especially English name pronounced by Chinese. R becomes L (like Rainbow becomes Lainbow), D becomes T and so on. This is the first thing I looked into when we were looking for the right name for our baby boy. I told hubby about it. I've done a lot of research on the internet on baby names, printed them out and let hubby looked at them. Actually, I used to like the name Benjamin and I insisted on James (after Ethan's grandpa) as the second name. Then, hubby wanted Ethan. I counter proposed Ian. After much negotiation, hubby still insisted on Ethan. He seldom make decision. So, when he made one, I just followed lor. The meaning of the name Ethan is Firm & Strong. I hope he will be a man, who is firm with his decision and strong in his health. The origin is Hebrew. The meaning of the name James is Supplanter (don't ask me what it is). The origin is also Hebrew.

As I think it's a meanigful tag, I want to tag the following babies/toddlers:

Baby Gib
Baby Darren
Baby Dillon
Baby Phoebe
Princess Xin Yi and Bao Yi

----

Instructions :

**Start Copy**

Proposition: What is the meaning of your kid’s name?

Requirements: write about what or how or why you giving the name to your kids.

Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode:1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

Baby Malaika - since u took so long to decide a name, sure has great meaning.. :P

Baby Belle - wants to know a little bit more of yr cutie massaeur's name

Baby Irfan - Hehe, take your time... knowing ur still recovering from pox

Baby Ethan - Ethan recovered already time to share with us his name lor

I Did It

I SPANK Ethan. It was on Sunday, if I remember it correctly. It's time to nap so I put him in the spring cot but he was like toss & turn, toss & turn, wanted to climb out. I'm already boiling inside. Hubby was eating at that time. Couldn't be bothered. I used to spank his buttock, actually diaper lar, and it's not hard. I don't know why I spank him a little harder than usual on that day and he was not wearing his pants. My hand landed on his thigh and PIAKK! He was stunned for a while, looked at me blankly, hand touching his thigh. Aiyorrrr, I felt so guilty at that moment. He looked superbly innocent like 'Why you spank me, mummy?'. Remember the cat in 'Shrek'? He looked just like that. After that he lie in the spring cot quietly and dozed off shortly. But....I saw that his thigh was like reddish, like got my fingerprint on it. Ouch! My heart also ache lar. I promise and reminded myself countless times - 'Do not spank your child!' But, I just lost it. Guess I have to work harder on controlling my temper lar.

If You're Happy......

...And You Know It Clap Your Hands. Ethan really likes this song in the Barney CD. He will follow them to clap but have not learn how to stamp his feet yet. You can see him clap in the video. He will watch the tv when his favourite songs are played including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He also likes to watch the little blond girl. Whenever she sings, he will watch. Tsk tsk tsk......so young already know how to choose girls. I have bought another education cd for him but he doesn't seem to like it.

Video taken on 4 May 2007

I have been telling people that Ethan likes to bite including his books. The other day, I bought two more books for him. Actually the books were his birthday presents from his 'poh poh' (grandma). My mother gave me money and asked me to buy things for Ethan. I bought two books and the balance of the money I deposit into his saving accounts. The two books are board books. He can flip the pages easily with his little fingers. They are also big, so he cannot lift the books and bite them. The few books that I bought for him last time were normal paper book. It's light and the pages are flimsy. He cannot flip the pages and can easily lift them up and bite. Now I know. It's not him that doesn't like book. It's the book that is not suitable for him. Silly me.

The yellow book (see picture below) has a spongie cover, sturdy but soft. Nice to touch. The other one, In The Jungle, has some pop-up animals when you open the pages. There are also some holes with different shapes on the pages. Ethan likes to touch the little holes. Unfortunately, the pop-up animals are made of paper and it's quite flimsy. Ethan already tore up two of the animals. Sigh.

Some of Ethan's birthday presents. See the two books?

PPP: A Date with Celebrity

This is a sponsored post.

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Seduce a Celeb will run on GoFish.com over the next 14 weeks. This program is unique because of the participative nature of the program that allows just anyone to be part of it. All you have to do is watch the introduction to the Seduce a Celeb promotion. Mirelly will explain how the promotion works. Watch the Mirelly's videos with 3 specific calls to action and you will have to create a video for each one. Finally, upload your videos and you will stand a chance to win a date with Mirelly Taylor. It's that simple. Wonder who will be the next celebrity up for grab. Brad Pitt? Just go and check out the hilarious video submissions at GoFish now. Emmy Award Winning Producer, Scott Sternberg, and Andrew Firestone from “The Bachelor” are also part of the show.

Eye Infection (Updated with photo)

Ethan's right eye was swollen on Saturday and got worse on Sunday. When I first saw his eye was reddish, I thought it will go away after a while. No, it didn't. By evening, it got worse but the two clinics that we normally brought him to are closed on Saturday's and Sunday's evenings. My mother said 'small matter only mar, need to see doctor mer?' She dab some chrysanthemum on his eye but it didn't help much. Being the 'kan cheong' me, I of course want his paed to check on him.

The clinic opens at 9am. So, the first thing we did at 9 am sharp was call to make an appointment. I didn't know their business was so good, the earliest appointment we got was at 12.10pm. We were there on time and by the time we went out from the clinic, it was already 1.30pm. Ethan was so hungry and was fussing in the car on the way home. Luckily the clinic is near our house. The paed said it was either insect bite or infection caused by rubbing. He gave us a cream to apply and said it should go away in two days. True enough, Ethan's eye is ok now.

PPP: HDTV Tuesdays

This is a sponsored post.

PPP is getting more exciting now. Apart from earning good money, you can earn great products too! Every Tuesday this month PayPerPost is holding HDTV Tuesday. They are adding all sorts of cool Audio and Video equipment to specially marked Opportunities. Some posties have already grabbed Opps with Apple TVs and a PS3, and more cool stuff is on the way including a new HDTV at the end of this month! Big thanks to Bid4Prizes for sponsoring all these great products every week. Today, (May 15) a few posties will walk away with either a Slingbox, Nintendo Wii, Yamaha Surround Sound System or a Logitech universal remote. There will also be an Opportunity that will allow you to walk away with one brand new PlayStation 3! This killer console not only plays some of the coolest games on the planet it also plays DVDs and BlueRay Discs. I'm sure hubby will like this one. Wish I could get one for him as birthday present. Like last week, this Opportunity can be any amount and won't necessarily look special compared to other Opps on the surface. You will have to drill a little deeper in order to find it. Good luck and happy hunting! Unfortunately, it's only open to US residents.

Second Hair Cut

We took Ethan for a hair cut at a salon on Wednesday evening. He didn't cry but was fussing a little, maybe because he was not comfortable with all the hair on his neck. It was done within 10 minutes and cost RM5. We decided to cut his hair short, more or less bald because he kept pulling his hair lately. He pulled his hair so hard that you can actually see that the scalp is like a carpet being pulled up. The first time we brought him for a hair cut at a salon was when he was around 3 months old. Since then, we just trimmed his hair from time to time.

(First hair cut in August 2006)

Second hair cut on 9 May 2007

The Party (Updated With Video)

Ethan's Birthday party went on well as planned on Sunday, 6 May. Hubby collected the cake around noon. The cake was perfect. Exactly like what I wanted it to be. Around 5 pm, I went to collect the food while hubby looked after Ethan at home. The car still smells prawn until now! Ethan slept very little on that day but his appetite has returned to normal. He took a nap from 10-11 am. We went to Giant and he took another short nap for 15 minutes at around 2pm. When I went out to collect the food, hubby was supposed to coax him to sleep but he refused to nap. So, after I came back I fed him porridge. Before he finished, guests started to arrive. Then, I quickly gave him a shower and let him mingled with the guests. The poor fellow felt sleepy shortly after and he took another nap from 6.30-7.30 pm.

In the meantime, the guests enjoyed their food. We had fried rice, fried mee, fried meehoon, curry chicken, bitter gourd chicken, salted egg prawn, vege, fish paste something, fruits, etc. Too much food lar. In the end, I made everyone 'tapau' the extra food. Luckily they are all close relatives. No 'pai sieh' one.

Then, I woke the little birthday boy up at 7.30 pm. He was blur for a while and refused to let anyone carry him except his mummy and daddy. Probably he was scared that suddenly there were so many people in the house. We sang the birthday song for him but he doesn't know what was going on. He just looked at us. We blow the candle, cut the cake and everyone was curious to find out if the teddy bear on the cake can be eaten or not. The answer is yes but no one wants to eat it anyway because it's like eating sugar. It's extremely sweet but the cake tasted ok.

After everyone left, I gave Ethan a shower. That was around 9pm. He ate the cake and his hands and face were dirty and sticky. Hubby and mother-in-law helped to clean up a little. After the cheeky one slept, I mop the floor, took my shower and call it a day.

P/S: If you want to know how the cake taste, watch the video below. Ethan will tell you.

The nice and untouched cake!

Ethan cutting the cake, with mummy's help

Yummy! He likes the cake a lot

UHH! What happened to my teddy bear?
(See the nose? It was replaced by a star)

PPP: Bug The Movie

This is a sponsored post.

I always love to watch movies especially adventure and horror movies. There is a new horror movie to be released soon. It's 'Bug'. Look at the posters below. The first one tells you that the bug movie has something to do with bugs, of course. The second one looks more like a horror or a ghost movie. I watched the promo video on youtube. It doesn't tell much. All I know is the story is something about some bugs that eats human brain. Sound scary isn't it. The bug movie is from the director of 'The Exorcist' and starred by Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon and Harry Connick, Jr. If you want to find out more about the actors, you can check it out the film's website. It also gives the synopsis and some downloads. I don't know what kind of bugs that the movie is talking about. Does it really exist? Does it really eat human brain? Or is it something else that mutates and started to feed on human brain? I have watched many scary movies that are based on creatures like spiders (The 8 Legged Freak), worms, rats, etc. In actual fact, the things are around us and quite harmless. Somehow, someone or something will caused these creatures to be aggresive and attack human. I wonder what triggers the bugs in this bug movies to attack human. Hmmm...must go and see.

Still The Same

Ethan woke up at 5.30 a.m. again this morning after sleeping through from around 8.30 p.m. Took his milk and refused to go back to sleep. I noticed that he couldn't finish his milk for the last two nights. Normally, he will finish 7 oz of milk easily at night. This morning, the girl at the day care asked me how was his milk intake and I told her not very good. She said Ethan's appetite was not very good yesterday. Took only half of his normal portion of porridge. Same goes to the milk. I don't know what's wrong with him. Could it be the flu? or wind? But the flu was mild and his appetite was ok when he had flu last time. If he is still not eating well today, I will bring him to the paed tonight. I hope he will not be sick this Sunday, when we are going to have his birthday party.

Waking Up Early

I have written previously that Ethan sleeps early at night. Well, now he wakes up early too. At least for the last two days. He woke up before 6 am and refused to get back to sleep. The only good thing was he slept through the night until he woke up at around 5.30 am for his milk. After that, he wanted to play and scream, pretend to cry, so that we will bring him out of the room. No choice lar, how to sleep when he scream non-stop. Brought him out and let him play. Yesterday was a holiday yet we can't sleep a little bit longer. At 8 am, I felt like it's noon already. Ethan only took his nap at around 9 am and woke up half an hour later. Luckily he took another nap from 11 am to 1 pm. As my parents-in-law are coming this Saturday, I have to clean up the room. I have to stop my work in between to get him to sleep. I don't undertstand why he couldn't sleep when hubby tried to coax him a few times. Only when I took over, he closed his eyes and sleep. It happened again this morning - slept through from 9pm without milk (took porridge at around 6pm) and woke up at 5.30 am for milk and after that wanted to play. I hope he will not stick to this routine. Otherwise, I will not need an alarm clock anymore.

PPP: Non-profit Rehab Referral Service

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PR 3

Woohoooo! The egg is broken. Finally, my PR is no longer a zero. I just checked on Monday and the PR was still a zero but not today. I'm surprised to see the PR suddenly jumped from 0 to 3. Even if it is 1, I will be happy. Just hope that it will not go back to zero again :-)

Web Page URL:	http://theblueranger.blogspot.com
The Page Rank:	3/10
(the page rank value is 3 from 10 possible points)

PPP: Lowest Unique Bid Wins

This is a sponsored post.

It's crazy. Normally the highest bidder will get the prize and you will have to pay the amount you bid. But it's totally different with www.bid4prizes.com. Anyobe can be the lowest unique bidder All you need to do is get the lowest unique bid for the prize you want and if your bid is the lowest, you win!

Here how it works:

The lowest unique bid for every prize starts out at one penny, but if more than one person bids a penny, then that penny is no longer the lowest unique bid but the 2 cents is, and so on. The winning bid could be anything, it could be $1.03 or even $222.22. Whatever is the lowest unique bid wins the prize. The dollar amounts in bids are phony and are just used to determine the winner of the prize. If you win a prize it is absolutely free! bid4pizes even pays for the shipping. As with winning any prize taxes may apply. Check with your state tax department or with your financial advisor to determine if taxes apply or not.

Now, my dream prize is the Philips 50" Plasma TV! Imagine, a 50" tv. Maybe I will put in $0.88 as the bid. My current tv is giving me signals that it's not going to last long.