32 Months Old

Time flies!! (So many people said it so many times already, but I still have to say it). Ethan will celebrate his 3rd birthday in four months time. I have no idea on how to celebrate his birthday this year. We had 3 dinners and 2 cakes for his 2nd birthday. Why 3 dinners? Coz there are 2 people in my family, who cannot meet face to face, so got to celebrate separately. Very the "ma-fan" (troublesome). The 3rd dinner was a simple dinner for the 3 of us on his actual birthday.

Some updates on Ethan:
Height: 92-93 cm
Weight: 13 kg

Speech
Life is easier now as he is older and he can communicate pretty well with us.....sometimes can "bok-jui" (argue) somemore. The Aunty at his school told me last week that he also argues with his teacher and when he lost, he will pout his mouth. The teacher also "saja kacau" him.

He picks up words very fast nowadays so I try very hard not to say bad words in front of him. Instead of f@#k, I say s@#t. Better right?

When I scold him now, he will say "You naughty....I don't want you...Go away....I say go away". (Lei war sei mmm sei...)

Latest craze: Ultraman!!
It happened when I went to NZ late last year. Hubby introduced him to that rubber-costume-super-hero, which shows on tv in the evenings. The craze started from then on. I think he should be watching Barney instead at this age as it is more educational.

He is so crazy about it that he can watch the same cd over and over again. And when he's not watching it, he wants to play Ultraman with us. He is Ultraman and Mummy is dinosaur (monster). My mum scolded me for letting him watch too much Ultraman coz he always pretends to be dinosaur and makes ugly faces.

His current Ultraman collection consists of:

• 6 Ultraman figurines (5 pasar malam toys and one came free when we bought a cd). Of these, 2 has broken into half, 1 with head fell off but glued back. Cheap toys ma....
  
• 4-5 CDs
• 1 set of pyjama. I normally buy RM 10-19/pair types of pyjamas for him but this set cost RM24!! I made daddy paid for it.
  
• 2 sticker books (all bersepah already)

Talking about stickers, there were a couple of times I went to work with his stickers (thank God not Ultraman!!) on my leg and sometimes elbow and shoes. The best part was I only realised about it when I was about to finish work!! So darn malu if people saw me with the stikers on. OH GOSHHHH!!!!!

School
He adapts pretty well at the school. Instead of saying "Don't want school", he sometimes says "Ethan go to school" when I'm driving him there. He still clings to me when I drop him off especially when does not have enough sleep. Then I have to spend 10-20 minutes sweet talking to him until he let me go willingly/ half willingly...as long as he doesn't cry. I don't want to leave him while he's crying as I'm worried that he will hate going to school. He's barely 3 and he has a long way to go before University. I don't care if he does not excel academically, I just want him to get a degree, at least. Not too much to ask for right?

I don't know what he learns at school but I'm not too concern about it. I think it is still too early to emphasis on education at his age. I doubt the school is practising Montessori as claimed but I don't care la. As long as he likes to go to school, mix around, happy and healthy, I'm a happy mother. I'm also happy that the daycare Aunty is taking good care of him. She always reports to me what happens to him at school and she speaks fondly of him too sometimes.

Diet:
He takes milk 3-4 times a day:

• 6 am, when I wake up, when he's half awake.
• Noon, before nap
• Late afternoon, before I pick him up but sometimes he skips that if he takes snack
• At night, before sleep
  

He's currently on Friso Gold and Pediasure (chocolate flavour). After I changed him from Enfagrow to Friso, he seems to be less interested in milk. Then, his solid food intake also seems to be reducing. My sis was giving her daughter Pediasure coz she will only drink milk with chocolaty taste. So, my sis found Pediasure with chocolate flavour and mix it with Mamil and the little girl started to drink milk. From then on, she became chubbier and chubbier. Ethan tried the milk and he likes it too. Hmmmmmm........ so I also went to buy a tin of Pediasure too and mix it with Friso and walla.......problem solved.

I mix 4 scoops of Friso with 1 scoop of Pediasure in 7 oz of water. At school, he's taking Friso only. I asked the Aunty about his milk intake and she said no problem. So I just let it be lar.

Other than that, I also noticed some differences in him after changing milk- less phlegm and less hyper. However, I'm not too sure if the phlegm thing improved because of the milk or because he's growing up. He used to have a lot of phlegm from time to time when he was younger and the doctor did advised us to change milk and see if the situation improved. We didn't change his milk at that time coz he's still young and seemed to be ok with Enfa. If I remember it correctly, the doctor also said that the phlegm problem will get better as he grows up. So, I don't really know which is which.

About the hyper active thing....I think I'm pretty sure it's caused by the milk. I'm not saying that all kids taking that milk will be hyper active. Maybe the milk is not suitable for him...that's all. He was so active at one point and it worried me. He can run non-stop, like for more than 15 minutes, in the house just chasing the ball alone excitedly. He can never sit down and concentrate on one activities like drawing, playing puzzle, blocks, whatever it is. Even when he's watching tv, he will move around and stop for a while to catch a glimpse of his favourite show. Now.......he can watch movie with us at home, from beginning till the end. Hubby has been contemplating of bringing him to the cinema. Probably his attention span is longer now as he's older and has nothing to do with the milk. I don't know.

We seldom take photos of him nowadays as our digital camera is not good at capturing moving objects :-) Here are some photos taken by a good friend during our friend's wedding in September 2008. I like them very much. Thanks Erica!!