Elmo White Eyes

Ethan is slowly starting to put together three word sentences. This morning, he pointed to his plush Elmo's (nearly the same size as he is) eyes and said, "Elmo, white, eyes".

My little Noomsie is growing up. He still blabbers his own speach most of the time that no one understands. But every now and then, you get the feeling he is answering you with real words.

Ethan is getting better at counting from one to ten. He still hesitates to say "seven" and skips to eight, but I think more to tease me than anything. Right, Ethan? "seh-VEEN"

My little angel Noomsie.

Ethan Is 22 Months

Ethan turned 22 months this past week, and his mama turns 30 years on Friday. [sorry no pic as apparently I have reached my allowable limit for loading photos on this blog ... time to start another one?]

Ethan's speech is developing more and more each day, although for the most part we still cannot understand what he is saying. He can now put two words together with his more favorite sayings being "all gone" and "my car". His most favorite thing in the world right now? Cars. Every waking moment is "kah", "kah" - like a British person not pronouncing the letter "r".

He runs faster, and is starting to test his jumping abilities.

He can identify certain letters of the alphabet like "O" and "U" and "Q", among others. He can also count to ten. Well, sort of. He "skips" four and quickly says "five", does the same with seven for eight, but otherwise says the other eight numbers.

He weighs 24 pounds and his eating habits are still hit or miss. Oh well. What can you do?

The Thrills Of Toddlerhood

Ethan turned 20 months old on May 21st. He still has only just 8 teeth with no obvious signs his molars are coming. As a result he eats very slowly and methodically and "chews" his food with great care and attention.

Everything revolves around Ethan these days. With mom with us the past couple of weeks, I have been fetching Ethan from preschool after lunch to bring him home to be with grandma some afternoons. Grandma has enjoyed having Ethan around, and has done very well introducing him to new foods - like eggplant! (khoresh-e-bademjoon... yum!)

It hasn't been easy, however, the past week or so. Ever since I left for my conference in DC/Virginia, Kelly tells me Ethan has been very cranky and whiny. Ethan rarely eats unless held (unless seriously distracted with other things). When thirsty, he calls/cries/whines/points for his straw cup, gets a hold of it, and passes it off to Kelly for her to hold the cup to Ethan's mouth for him to sip. Talk about picky. Only a mom-held-beverage will do!

Sleep time is a whole other adventure. Ethan's been through sleep-training so many times now, and he is back to the beginning it seems. We have our night-time routine that consists of a bath, some playing, milk, reading books, reading prayers, brushing of teeth, and then goodnight kisses and off to bed. But lately, even as early (in the bedtime routine) as drinking his milk, or being offered his milk, Ethan now realizes he is soon reaching his "curfew" and anticipating the final few steps in his routine, he resists and cries and gets all upset.

Kelly has had to put him in his crib while staying in his room, and often falling asleep in Ethan's room (we have a futon mattress on the floor next to his crib). Usually it is Kelly who sleep trains Ethan (since I cannot stand to hear him cry) but we will wait until after mom's visit to re-sleep train, Ethan.

Just now the crying has started, as Kelly calls Noomsie for his "nay" (milk).

New Video: Ethan Reading

Here's a video mom took of Ethan (20 months) "reading" a brochure/manual. This is just 30 seconds long. Not sure if I can post the 3 minute version. In that longer version, Ethan stops to "catch his breath" and then continues to read "wawawawawa" ..

Ethan 19-M.O. Video

Finally, it took sooo long to upload this video but here it is. Ethan at 19 months old. In this video I ask Ethan what various animals say (animal sounds) and Kelly quizes him on his body parts (in chinese). For translation purposes, Kelly asks the following body parts in this order: nose, mouth, teeth, eyes, ears, hair, hand, tummy and foot. Kelly then asks "where are daddy's socks?" to which Ethan replies (in english) "socks" (but you'll have to turn up the volume to hear it). And last, Kelly instructs me to get a box, since Ethan can say "ba-ksss (box)" - again have to put up the volume for that one.

I am not sure how to get the HTML to embed that is specific to my video of Ethan; you will notice also other "Ethan" videos that others have posted (along with older videos I have posted) .... better than nothing :-D

Growing Up

Our Ethan is growing up. He turns 19 months today, and is now in full-time preschool. Today was day one back from "spring break" and Ethan and all his preschoolmates were excited to be back in school. Linda has done a fantastic job the past 7 months or so caring for Ethan. Transitioning to The Learning Depot, we had Ethan with Linda twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays), and now he will be at TLD 5 days a week.

Ethan's favorite or commonly used words are (Ethan's pronounciation in brackets): hi, hello (owww), bye (bah-yee), box, dots, baby (day-dee), mama, papa, ball (bow), deng (din; chinese for 'light'), socks, nay (chinese for 'milk'), si-sieh (chinese for "thank you") ... and of course his favorite word of all, NO!!

Animal sounds: mooo, meow (maow), baaa (ba-ha), woof (woah-woah)...

He understands the following body parts in chinese: hand (sho), foot (tsiao), belly (du-tze), hair (tow-fah), mouth (tsway-pah), teeth (yah-chuh), nose (bee-tze), ears (err-duah), eyes (yen-tsing) and not a body part but related ... socks (wah-tze) ... he doesn't say any of these words (yet) but points to these ..

We have a video but are finding it difficult to post currently...

Preschool A Success!

Ethan LOVES The Learning Depot. He completed his first week of preschool this week. He goes three times a week (T, W, Th) for now. Linda still looks after him Ms and Fs... but eventually we will transition him to full-time at TLD. In his first week, Ethan has played indoors and out with children slightly older than he is, experienced playing with Play-Doh, does gross motor play in a "jump room" where everything is "bouncy" and child safe, dabbles with art (he even brought home a piece of art work that he had scribbled!) and more ...

What impresses me is how detail-oriented TLD is in completing these "report cards" that are sent home with every child, EVERY DAY :-D They include things like what Ethan ate, in what quantity, when he slept, for how long, diaper changes, supplies needed, potty training, and such. There is this one part that reads, "Today I was:" and then an area to fill out. Ethan's "teacher" (for lack of a better term that escapes me just now) writes for Ethan such adjectives as "wonderful!" and "great!". So cute. (you know, it reads as if in Ethan's voice saying "Today I was wonderful" - ahh you get what I mean) ..

And the other children are so happy with Ethan - as if Ethan is a new class pet (everyone wants to touch and "pet" him) - partly because he is just so darn cute in his toddler outfits. The parents of Ethan's classmates sure have voiced their admiration for our little Noomsie and his dashing good looks.

Tomorrow will be back with Linda. It will be interesting to see how he does after three days (kinda like a long weekend anyways) away from her care. But we suspect no difference in his behavior or attachment to us or Linda, since he is quite used to her now and loves very much being in her care and with Lukie and Lilly to play with.

Next week, I think, Ethan's class at TLD gets a local clay artist come and visit and teach them some pottery. We'd better slip in a note to E's teacher to pay special attention so that noomz doesn't eat any of the clay. :-p

Toddlerhood

Life has been so hectic and irregular recently that I totally forgot to blog about Ethan entering into toddlerhood!

That's right. Ethan is officially walking or toddling around the house :-D It has been about two weeks now since he took his first steps. Quite honestly, one of the proudest moments of being a parent. It is just such an accomplishment, walking, that one forgets ('since everyone eventually learns to walk') how much goes on to learning to first walk.

We have managed to capture on video some of Ethan's early steps, though the videos are a bit dark, and I don't know when I will have time to post them on my blog. (YouTube has just been very unreliable lately for me). We also have so many pictures --- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH -- that I wish to post, but sadly, our camera has now reached the end of its life, and so I will have to wait, patiently, until mom and sis send us a CD of all the pictures we took over the past 6 weeks.

Besides watching with so much pride as a father, my son walking about everywhere he wishes, Ethan has developed other skills equally satisfying (if not more so than walking) to any parent. He can hold his own sippie cup/bottle and even feed himself a Cheerio every now and again. There is something so satisfying beholding my son as he drinks water, for example, with such delight and intensity, and pauses when he wants, and continues when he wants.

Ethan is also teething more. He now has 6 teeth - 3 up, 3 down - with a seventh and perhaps eighth whitie poking through his gums.

Kelly is letting him go up the stairs now, supervised of course. With each step nearly half his height, it is cute watching this determined little man tackle each, and with a great big smile on his face.

Some things to come which, as parents, we don't necessarily wish our child develop too soon are the abilities to run, and climb furniture (or other high places). But those are next! :-D

9 - M - O

Noomie Noomz is 9-months old today! Ok, so this picture is not the best and is quite blurred. Ethan won't "stand" still long enough for me to take a clear picture without using the flash. He is such a busy body now and wants to get at everything and crawls and pulls to stand and is curious for new things every minute. Will try to get a better one later today/tonight. I wish you were all here with us :-D

9-Month Visit

Ethan had his 9-month well child visit. It was a short visit, with no vaccinations administered, and it was also Ethan's last with his pediatrician, Dr. Susan Owens. His next doctor's appointment will be for 12 months (1-year old) and we will be in Blue Ridge, Georgia, then.

Noomz' weight had not increased much since his 6-month visit. He now weighs 16lbs 4oz (7665g) which puts him only in the 5th percentile (5%) for boys 9-months old -- quite a significant "decrease" since he was in the 50th percentile (50%) at 6 months (15lbs 3oz). However, Dr. Owens is not worried, since Ethan is burning more calories these days since having learned to crawl, pull to stand, and cruise (walking while holding on to furniture etc..). He is doing fantastic developmental-wise.

But mom and dad would feel better if he were putting on more weight...

Amby Baby Jumper

We've since replaced the hammock on the Amby Baby to the jumper attachment, which Ethan enjoys. He doesn't quite last as long as I would have hoped on it though, usually getting frustrated and bored after a few minutes of hearty jumping! Thanks again, Ah Ma!

Standing Leap Frog

Here's a video Kelly took a while back of Ethan standing while holding and playing with his Leap Frog table. Since this video was taken, Ethan can now pull himself up from a sitting position, onto things that are not too tall (e.g. wagon railing). Many more short clips to be added soon.

8 & Counting...

Ethan was 8 months old yesterday! And with this new age he has also reached several new milestones:

(1) teeth are in!!! Noomz is finally teething. I say "finally" because for the longest time I had been thinking he was teething since he would drool a lot more than usual, bite on things more, etc.. etc.. but nope, only just now, his bottom two front teeth are just barely poking through his gums!!! Awww... just realized this probably means no more GUMMY SMILES :-C

(2) sitting to tummy. Ethan has been able to sit unaided for a few weeks now, and has just recently developed the ability to get from a sitting position to his front, and he even "tests" his ability to move forward and crawl by doing this forward-to-backward swaying (ala a preying mantis). And even though he can't really crawl yet, he can get around by rolling and back scuttling (yes, he can "crawl" backwards!) Weird, or not, but soon I cannot simply put him down one place and expect him to be there.

(3) and Ethan's first word is ... DAAH-DEEEE!!! Yay!!! Noomz can say dada, daddy, and a host of other hard consonant sounds like baba... though still working on MA-MA (he can sort of do the mumummmmmmmm sound so almost there!)..

(4) stage 2 foods cont ... And he's already tried so many different types of foods now, though his intake has lessened considerably and he's not putting on too much weight these days, likely attributed to his teething..

(5) standing with support! Noomz can play with his Leap Frog learning table and hold himself upright! Quite cool... and just the other day, he grabbed my leg like a toddler would and was totally standing :-D (not quite on his own though... a few months from that)


(6) toys and playtime... Ethan is slowly multi-tasking with his toys, now grabbing multiple objects with both hands, and generally very attentive and curious about what his toys can do (sounds, textures, etc..) all very exciting to him! And he anticipates a ball rolling towards him, an object falling off the table/high chair, etc...

Not sure if left out any other milestones, but it seems these days, each day, something new is learned or developed, and this was not really the case during the first 6/7 months... so moving fast forward now if you know what I mean all you veteran parents.

May take me some time to upload the many videos Kelly has been taking of Ethan displaying perhaps these various acquired skills/milestones... but I can post some pictures now..

Enjoy!

Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz: Noomie Update

If you have read, or are currently reading, Dr. Seuss's ABC book, you will know what a "Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz" is.

In a nutshell, my day is all about duckdogs and quacking quackeroos... not to mention the Wozet in the closet, or the Nooth Grush on the boy's tooth brush. I mean, seriously, are these quality learning materials? Maybe, maybe not. But they are certainly classics.

And my day with Noomz would not be complete without reading a few books in the Dr. Seuss collection. Ethan really enjoys "One Fish, Two Fish", mainly because the book has these moveable plastic fish toys along the spine which he likes to reach for while I read to him.

But Noomz is changing, developing.

We (Kelly and I) have officially agreed, that, yes, Ethan CAN sit unaided now, and so I've gone on to buy Stage-2 foods. Some of the foods I bought include: sweet potatoes and corn; banana, apple and pear; turkey and turkey gravy; and other single veggie or single fruit varieties that are thicker and chunkier in consistency and not the liquid puree of stage 1 level foods. In addition, I bought a multi-grain cereal that I plan to indroduce by first mixing with his single-grain rice cereal he's been eating now for a couple months.

But besides Ethan's ability to sit on his own, he is getting very hard to carry and hold still as he likes to climb and grab and generally do things with intent (i.e. you are holding something I want or am interested in simply because you are holding it). He rolls all the time, and so we cannot put him on elevated furniture (bed, sofa) unless we are right there with him. Even using pillows as barriers is not always full proof. He can get around them, or over them, but he does so not by crawling (yet), but by rolling, and pushing up with his legs when on his back. Clever little guy.

As if these changes were not all enough for mom and dad to tackle first, Ethan has also developed a bit of stranger anxiety, and also separation anxiety, or both the same? First, like in situations where we are in public and some of our friends wish to carry him, a once very playful and willing 3-month old is now a stranger-fearing 7-month old. He does warm up to others in a few minutes, and some, instantly, so not really "sranger anxiety" per se, but definitely something going on there.

Separation anxiety though has given us more trouble. Ethan can hardly be put down anywhere for a second before he kicks up a fuss. If you are out of his line of sight, he will let his displeasure be known. Calling back at him as if to say "don't worry, I am still here" only restores comfort for a second or two, if that.

And so bed time routines are being reinvented, and sad to say, his sleep training is no more. Ethan wakes regularly once, or twice at night, and usually cannot fall back asleep, as he usually flips to his stomach and props himself with his arms and finds this new position not conducive to going back to sleep :-) And mom and dad, being softies, let in, and he ends up cozying up in bed with us, content and snoring his baby zzzzzzz's the night away.

Kinda just have to roll with the punches I guess. One day at a time. One "Verna Vera Vin and her violet violin" at a time.

Pear-fect!

Chalk it up to the list of food Ethan likes! It wasn't love at first bite though, but he has taken to eating pear pretty quickly and now really likes it. So among the foods noomie enjoys to eat include: banana, sweet potato, broccoli and pear! Next, we will probably try peas since we have a lot of it.

Brocc'a Brocks

It's been a while since I posted a blog entry. Things are pretty crazy over here. Juggling a lot of things, and, well, some things are just out of our hands. But anyways, Ethan loves his broccoli!! We steamed fresh broccoli and Magic Bulleted it to a creamy consistency, and mixed it with his rice cereal. Noomie can't get enough of his brocc'a brocks -- a chip off his ol' daddy's block.

Southern Tooth (Almost)

Yes!! I found the jackpot - in what Ethan loves to eat that is (besides rice cereal). I'd call it a sweet tooth, but he's got no teeth. Just gummy noomie-ness. And so the golden food (quite literally) is Sweet Potato!!

It has been well over three days since we introduced bananas to Ethan, and he is enjoying eating that now. So, I figured I could introduce the next fruit or veggie. I figured I would choose a vegetable this time, since we've tried applesauce (too tart) and banana (ok) so far. And boy, from the word go, the golden pudding was like buttah to my baby's belleh.

Since the jar of sweet potato baby food was a bit too runny, I mixed it with his rice cereal to thicken it up, and he ate every bit I offered him :-) Kelly and I will be quick to buy more tonight or tomorrow for sure. I have a feeling Ethan will also enjoy peas. Knock on wood!

My good ol' Southern Boy loves his Sweet Potato (Pie)... perfect since we're moving to Georgia.

Going Bananas

Yes, some times I feel like I am going bananas .. but that is neither here nor there. It would seem that Ethan is slowly enjoying eating bananas!! Woo hoo indeed! He still prefers his bananas only when mashed well and mixed with rice cereal at a ratio of no more than 1 part fruit to 3 parts mush. But hey, this is improvement! And four feedings later, Noomie actually consumed his first complete/entire/whole banana (albeit a smaller sized one).

Next up: Peas.

0 For 2

Ethan looooooooooooooves his rice cereal -- unfortunately this does not translate to everything else we feed him, now that he is eating solids. We have tried introducing 'applesauce' to him, and with a face, and a gag, we get the message loud and clear: "Daddy, this thing is too tart/sour/weird!!". So we try mixing it in to the rice cereal. Nope! It is just not as good as plain, good ol' fashioned, rice cereal.

Following Kelly's advice (after all she is a pediatrician), we waited 3 days before introducing something new. "The next food we introduce should be somewhat 'bland'", I thought. With this in mind, I figured bananas would be pretty tame, no? Again, nope! Same sour, skewed face with a gag or two to make the point VERY clear, he is not wanting any of this one too.

So back to the trusted creamy rice cereal. And he just eats so much of it!! Ethan is up to a whole cup each feeding (not a true cup, but a 'baby cup', and when I checked it measures nearly 4.5 ounces). So each time I feed him a bottle of milk afterwards, and he ONLY drinks 1.5-2 oz I know he is really taking in nearly 6.5oz!

But what to do about introducing fruits and veggies?

We have not yet tried vegetables, though we have already bought peas, sweet potatoes, among others, and I very much hope Ethan will enjoy eating them as much as he like his plain cereal.

Any tricks?

6-Month Checkup

Ethan had his 6-month doctor's appointment today. Yeah, he's REALLY already half a year old! (well not for another two days actually...). And his progress just keeps improving at a steady rate. Noomie weighed in at 15 pounds 3.6 ounces (or 6905 grams), was measured at 26 inches in length (tall) and 43 cm head circumference.

I remember when he had his newborn well-child visit and even his 1-month visit his stats were not even on the chart for boys in the U.S. And then 2-months when he was 15%/10%/15%, 4-months 25%/15%/25%, and now those stats for 6-months put him at 50%/25%/30%. So his weight is increasing very well, and his height, well, it's increasing at least. We're not expecting a tall boy with mommy and daddy's genes anyways. And his head is getting bigger too yay :-)

Ethan is showing so much signs of development that even in just ANTICIPATING his immunizations/shots, while the nurse was still sorting out her paperwork and getting her supplies ready, Ethan was crying and squirming on the bed/table, almost tearing away the paper liner that covers the surface.

But he did very well and I am so proud of him, he only cried briefly after receiving his shots and was quickly tired and fell asleep on the ride back home.

Next visit: June 18, 2007 (9-months)