28 Months Update

2 years, 4 months & 1 week old.....

I have not been doing Ethan's monthly update for quite some time already. Sometimes I feel there is too little to write, hence didn't write anything. Then, sometimes there are just too many things happened in a month and I've lost track, ended up don't know where to start thus no update too. Since Ethan is attending a new school for almost a month now, I thought it's a good talking point for me to start writing.

School
I think he has almost settled down with the new school. In the beginning of the 2nd week, he cried in the morning when I sent him there. Then, towards the end of that week, he was better. One fine night, while tucking him to bed, I talked to him. I asked him what he did at school. Of course, he couldn't answer me. I tried to say something that excites him. So I said 'Ethan sing sing with teacher at school? What Ethan sing? I love you You love me?' He seems to be very interested in that topic. Then I got the hint and told him 'Ethan go to school tomorrow and wait for teacher to sing I love you You love me, ok?'. He replied 'ok', much to my surprise. I said the same thing to him the next morning and it really worked. He didn't cry but reluctantly let me go.

From there on, he cried less and less as the days went by especially towards the end of the week. Today marks the 5th week he attends the new school. I thought it will be a difficult morning as it's a Monday. To my surprise, he asked 'Where Aunty' the moment we entered the school compound and he didn't cry at all. Phew!!!

Emotion/Character
He is definitely a stubborn kid and has been showing a lot of terrible-2 signs. Below are a few that I could recall:

1. He spits at us when we scold him or if he is upset with us. I don't know where he learn this but definitely not from the movie 'Titanic'.
2. He refuses to hold our hand when walking in the mall. He loves to run around and get even more excited if he sees us chasing after him. At times, I just wanted to shout 'ETHAN JAMES....STOP!!!!!!!!!!' and let all the people stare at me like a maniac. Even if we managed to make him hold our hands, he will not walk properly. It's either he walks slanted or he walks very fast and suddenly kneel down as if doing a dance move.
3. He wants to push the trolley or pram instead of sit on them. He can't control the direction of the trolley/pram and will only stop when it hits on things. This is scary especially if we are at a crowded area or glassware section.
4. He is short but insisted to hold on to the escalator hand rail. At first he wanted us to carry him so he can hold the railing but now, he can touch it if he tip toed.
5. Refuses to say sorry when we ask him to do so after he did something wrong, as if he knows that if he says sorry means he admits his fault.

Vocabulary
He can count from 1-10 and sings the alphabet song (from a-g then the wrods starts to jumble up).

He can string words now. The best phrase is 'I don't want'. Other common phrases are:

1. Where Daddy go?
2. Why so dark?
3. Why so dirty?
4. Who do this?
   
5. I want go kai-kai
6. I want poh-poh, ah yee, mei-mei.
7. I want eat chicken (all types of meats are chicken to him)
   

I like it when he says 'I want.....I want........' with his eyes looking around as if he's really thinking on what he wants.

There was one incident when he asked daddy to open up a can of Playdoh for him, he told Daddy 'Cannot eat ar'. I told him that earlier and looks like he picked it up fast.

He will look for excuses instead of saying 'No' when he dislikes something, e.g.:
Mummy: Tomorrow Mummy and Daddy go to work, Ethan goes to school ok?
Ethan: Aunty go home edi, bye bye Aunty edi.

Potty Training
He is diaperless at home and school except during nap and sleeping time. However, he seldom pee on the diaper during nap time. I think he's ready to nap without diaper but I need to find something to cover the mattress first, just in case. Any suggestion?

We still put him on diaper when we go out to the mall. Last weekend when we were at the mall, he told us he wanted to poo so we rushed to the kid's loo. I laid wet tissues on the seat and put him there but he can't do it. So we went for lunch and after eating, he again told us he wanted to poo. Again, it was a futile effort. Luckily the toilet was clean and since it's a kid's toilet, both parents are allowed in and we took turn to hold him. I don't know how to handle him alone in the ladies.

Diet
He had his first taste of ice-cream on 2 September, when he was 27 months old. The first thing he said was 'Nice'.

His diet didn't change much as he still prefer rice and noodles with soup. Still dislikes vegetables and western food espcially bread. French toast is an exception.

For fruits, banana is his no. 1 favourite. I always call him 'Ma-lao' (monkey in Cantonese) when I'm upset with him.

Favourite toys/game
Guitar and gun. Loves to play 'bang bang' with us. How to play? He points the gun at us and say 'bang bang' and we pretend to be frightened.

He loves to sing too and when he sings, only he can sing, no one else should open their mouth. All we can do is clap hands after he finishes.

(Photo taken on 1 August 2008 during
my mum's birthday celebration.
We gave him a broken mic to play with
and the poor boy sang his heart out)

Movies
He has watch a few movies with us at home from the beginning to the end. He seems to be absorbed in the movie at certain points. We have watched cartoons and thrillers together. Just last night, we watched 'Black Water' together, a thriller on crococile attack. It cracked us up when he suddenly asked 'Where uncle go?' after the man was dragged down the water by the killer crocodile.

Cameron Highlands

2 years, 4 months & 2 days old.....

Since my parents-in-law were in town for a week, we made a short trip to Cameron Highlands on 18-19 Sep. I searched for a few hotels online and shortlisted The Lake House, Equatorial and Strawberry Park. Checked on a forum at www.cameronhighlands.com especially on the reviews about the hotels there. You can find almost all information about the place from this website. In the end, we decided to stay at the Strawberry Park and booked a 3+1-rooms apartment at RM483 as my mum, sis and niece wanted to join as well. It's inclusive of RM120 worth of cash voucher and we spent it on the breakfast, which costs RM32+ per adult.

Now, here is my review about the place. The price is about the same as The Lake House and Equatorial and I've not been to any of those. We got an apartment with 4 rooms, 2 rooms with queen-size bed and two rooms with single bed. There is no kitchen in there hence we can't even heat up food. Luckily we didn't plan to cook. The floor is dusty but we didn't bother to ask them to clean up. I don't know how long it will take them to clean up the floor and I don't want to spoil my mood thus just ignore the issue. Furniture are a bit old but no funny smell on the bed nor pillows, thank goodness. Breakfast is only so-so.

The only thing I like about this place is the environment, which is surrounded by greens and is located quite high above the sea level. The Lake House is facing a lake but separated by a main road and the surrounding is quite bare, no trees or forest around. Equatorial is located higher than the Strawberry Park but surrounded by buildings and farms.

18 September 2008
Our journey started at around 8.30 a.am. and we reached the Tapah exit at around 10.30 a.m. Ethan and my niece didn't sleep until we made the journey up the hill. Thank goodness they slept while we went through the curves and turns, otherwise someone will surely puke in the car. Then we stopped for lunch at Tanah Rata at almost 12 p.m. We then proceeded to the Boh Plantation Visitors Centre at Sungai Palas. I found this place on the website (mentioned above). We took a rest there, had a cup of tea and visited the centre (mainly posters) but didn't visit the factory as we have kids tagging along.

Love the view from here

The second stop was the strawberry farm (don't know the name) which is near the Boh Plantation Visitors Centre. We saw the big sign board on the road side before we turn off to the Visitors Centre and decided to check it out on the way down. We had fun plucking strawberries at the farm. I remember the last two times I went there (years ago), we can only buy pre-packed strawberries and not allowed to pluck it ourselves. Everyone got so excited with the big red strawberries and ended up with 7 packs of them. Every 100g costs RM3, if I'm not mistaken and I don't how much all the 7 packs cost.

Then we bought some fresh vegetables from the farm and the kids visited the small animal farm there. There are some rabbits, tortoise and geese at the farm but the place is full of animal droppings.

We were told that this is Cameron's apple but it doesn't taste like apple at all.

Carrot fresh from the farm.

When we finished visiting the farm, it was almost 4 p.m. and we went to check-in at the hotel. The weather was quite chilly at that time. Everyone rested for a while, took a shower and headed for dinner at Brinchang. As it's a weekday, there was no night market and after dinner, we took short walk before going back to the hotel. Ethan and my niece, Tessa had lots of fun running around, climbing the sofas and beds. The adults had a bottel of wine and the fresh strawberries we plucked few hoours ago. At around 11+p.m., everyone konked off.

19 September 2008
The morning weather was really cold and we slept with almost all windows closed. There was no mosquitoes attack too. As soon as Ethan opened his eyes at around 9a.m., he was all fresh and active and woke everyone else up. After breakfast, we packed everything up and checked-out right at 12p.m.

We wanted to visit the bee farm but couldn't locate the one given in the map but we managed to find another one. Nothing impressive as there were only a few boxes of bees and some exhibits on bees. We didn't buy any honey but I spotted the strawberry ice at a stall nearby. It's made of fresh strawberries and cost RM1 each. I bought 10 sticks.

The second stop we made was at the Kea Farm to buy some fresh and cheap vegetables. The must buy item is the sweet corn (known as 'Jan Ju Bao' in chinese??), the one that you can eat fresh without steaming. It is really sweet and crunchy. The bigger one was selling at RM10 for 5 pcs while the smaller one at RM 10 for 8 pcs. I bought the small ones at RM10 for 3 pcs in KL. We bought so much corns that I had corns everyday for 4 days straight. No, I'm not scared of it and wouldn't mind to have more...hehe...

The last stop we made was for lunch at Brinchang, the same restaurant we had dinner the night before. From there, we headed straight back to KL at around 2-3p.m. Ethan slept for 2 hours in the car until we stopped for dinner in KL. Lucky me.

I think everyone enjoyed the trip especially the kids. Oh...and Ethan learnt a new trick from this trip....faking a smile for the camera!

2nd & 3rd Day At School

2nd Day At School (3 Sep 08)

Not a very good start for the day as I missed the turning to the school. I still followed the way to the old daycare and only realised it right before turning down to the highway. After using the same road for 2 years, I guess my mind has not register the new way I should be taking now. I had to make a U-turn to go back to the school. Wasted some precious time for the silly mistake.

When we arrived, the little one refused to walk so I had to carry him from the car to the school. He also refused to go down after we entered the school. I had to sit with him and played with him and let him warm up a little with the Aunty and kids there. Perhaps he's scared that I'll sneak away again like the day before. After spending some 10-15 minutes with him, there was no improvement as he still want me near him. I knew I will be late for work by then but I don't want to be late by an hour so I have to take action. I carried him and handed him to the Aunty and she had to practically pry him away from me. He saw me leaving and was crying when I left the school.

I called the school to ask about his progress in the afternoon and was told he's coping with the new environment. Actually, as long as he's not crying all the time or cause too much trouble, I'm not too worried cause he's been at the daycare all along. What I'm worried more is the people who's taking care of him. Once I got to know them better, I think I can settle down too. It's not only the child needs to settle down right? That's why I hate it when there's a change of people who is taking care of Ethan. I need time to settle down!!

When I picked him up after work, he was all happy and chirpy again. I was told he cried for a short while after I left. When the class started he refused to join in so the Aunty took him to the playing area and he watched tv for around half an hour before joining the class again. Other than that, he was ok.

3rd Day At School (4 Sep 08)

There was slight improvement this morning as I managed to coax him to walk in to the school and put his shoes on the shoe rack. He was quite jovial when I asked him to sit on the chair outside so that I can snap a few photos of him in his uniform for the first time.

After a short photo session, I carried him to the door as he refused to walk there. He knew what I'm up to. It was locked so I called out for the Aunty to open the door for us. Once he heard the word 'Aunty', he said 'No Aunty' angrily and held on to me very tightly. After we entered, I had to again coax him to sit down and the Aunty took out a few toys for him to play and tried to play with him too. Too bad, it didn't work out well as he still want me near him and sit down with him. I knew the trick was not going to work and I had to leave or else I will be late for work again. So I carried him, told him to follow Aunty to the kitchen and look for sweets. What a lie! He of course refused but I just handed him over to the Aunty and he cried out 'Mummy, Mummy, I want Mummy!!' as they walked in to the kitchen. I said 'You go with Aunty first, Mummy take the key and then go with you'. Another big fat lie!!! but he seemed to be buying it and I heard silence for a while before I grabbed the key and camera and sprint out of the school.

Sigh.....I hate lying to him like this. Can't wait to pick him up from the school. Another long day to go.

First Day At School

2 years, 3 months, 1 week & 5 days old.....

I think I should call this place a school since it's a pre-school + daycare. I took leave yesterday to send Ethan to his new school. When we entered the school, the children (around 30+ of them, age 3-6 years old) and 3 teachers have already gathered and singing some songs. I was seated with Ethan at one corner doing the registration and paying the fees. He looked at the kids with great interest and he knows some of the songs too.

The fees totalled RM1,200+, which included two months of school+daycare fee, registration fee, two sets of uniform and I can't remember what else. After completing the registration, the principal invited Ethan for breakfast. I accompanied him to the dining area where the 3&4 year-old kids have started to eat. He sat there and fed himself. I saw his teacher, a nice & sweet Chinese lady, feeding one of the girls. She looks so caring and gentle with the kids. I was a bit relieved then.

After breakfast, we adjourned to the study area outside and the teacher tried to warm up with Ethan and played puzzles with him. She thought Ethan is 3 but I told her he's only 2. Ethan was quite absorbed with the games and I sneaked out. Experts said it's not advisable to sneak out but to tell the kids that we are leaving and we will come back to pick them up. Well, it doesn't work for Ethan. I've tried that numerous times. The more I explain to him, the louder he will cry. So, whenever the opportunities arise, I choose to sneak out.

The teachers leave the school in the afternoon and the kids will be taken care by two helpers. Both of them are local and around 40+ years old. There are only 7-8 kids in the daycare session, including Ethan. I picked him up at 5.30p.m. and was told that once he realised that I was gone, he started to cry and clung to the teacher. Other than that, he was ok. The aunty was very surprised that he can feed himself and refused to be fed.

Of all the questions I asked the principal, I forgot to ask whether they are Chinese based or English based. Ethan's teacher speaks excellent Mandarin but not so good with English. So, I think they are Chinese based. Whatever it is, it is still better than being taught by foreign maids. Furthermore, since we plan to send Ethan to a Chinese school next time, it's good to expose him to the language now. My Mandarin sucks, so there is no hope for him to pick up the language at home.