August 1, 2016, a very exciting day for everyone.  Ethan started his first day of school.  Henry took him to school on the Croozer trailer bike.  And I was free for the entire morning until Kayli woke up.  All day I look forward to go to school just to spy on him.  I arrived school an hour early just so that I can see how he is adjusting at school.  When I arrived, he was so focused in eating his cake.  I saw him sitting with the other kids, ate on his own and walked up to the teacher and asked for a second serving of cake.  At that moment, I was relieved and happy to see that he is enjoying school.  I was such a proud mother when the teacher said that Ethan did not cry, although other kids in class were crying and crying.

Apparently Ethan was completely confused on the first day of school.  Day 2 onwards, he resisted going to school “verbally”.  After a few persuasion, he will walked to the bike or the car with us willingly every morning.  After school, the first thing he would say is, : Go home.

The kinder teachers are super loving, patience and caring.  They cared for Ethan on 1-1 basis.  Took him out for a breather whenever he is about to burst out crying (esp when other kids in class cry).  By the end of Day 2, all the teachers and admin knows him by, ” See cars/Go outside/Go home.” He loves Fibi and Joyce the most.  Just hang on to them whenever he sees either one of them.

Despite how heartbroken I am to see him cry every morning when I dropped him off at school.  He seems to be adjusting to school very well.  I have to say in a most boastful way  that Ethan has a very nice personality just like his dad.  Despite not liking school, he would force himself to go just because we ask him to.  Fortunately he is well liked at school.  He would not cry after I leave unless being stirred by other kids who started to cry again.  

A few weeks before Ethan’s 1st birthday, we finally took him on a bike ride in the Croozer trailer that was given my our Uncle Wen as his 1st BD gift.  Couple months ago, I forced him into the Croozer for a run.  Since then, he refused to sit inside the trailer.  To my surprised, he forgot about his traumatic experience of being in the trailer.  He sat in the trailer willingly.  I packed his trailer with blankets, toys, food and music.  Oh yes…he is good and happy chewing on the portable tube stereo and chowing down on his cheerios.  We were ambitious and daring to take Ethan on 4-5 hours (total) outing.  We rode to KHS employee outing (~1.5 hours).  It was not easy to be pulling a trailer behind the bike.  We was not able to ride that fast.  We arrived to a farm where the “party” begins.  There were some grass area where we could set out a blanket.  Ethan was also able to explored the area.  Henry and I took turns in playing games with the KHS employee.  They were competitive.  I was scared after the first game.  We had to leave early because Ethan was really tired.  He fell asleep as soon as we start riding (~5 mins).  That is how tired he was.  He even didnt mind that the sun was shining directly onto his face.  Since stopped in front of a Hi-Life and had one of the rice ball thingy for lunch.  It was very windy, so we decided to change our route (which was a bad idea because it took us 2x longer).

We left home at 7 am and reach home around 2 pm.  Ethan did very well for being willing to sit in the trailer for hours.

The 2nd outing was much shorter.  We rode towards Zhuwei port.  We stopped along the bike path on the grass area.  He enjoyed seeing the aeroplanes, since his first experience seeing planes in Venice, CA.  

It is unfortunate that Ethan first trip back to Malaysia is for mom’s funeral.  She left us in a sudden at home (and in bed) peacefully.  We brought Ethan along so that mom can see him for the last time.  He is the dearest grandson that mom had and loved very much.  She cannot wait to come back to Taiwan to be with us again, but life is just too short.  There are many regrets…. All we can do now is remember of the fond memories that we had together.

Ethan brought so much laughter to the family.  As expected, Ethan only likesSay ee to hold him, due to her resemblance to mom’s in every aspect.  Although he tolerates other to hold him when he is in a good mood.

Unlike most kids, Ethan really do not to play with water and sand.  He tasted the sand and decided that this is terrible.  He did not move an inch and just cried to be picked up.

Ethan took his first step in crawling on July 22nd, 2014.  He gets frustrated very easily when he landed on his tummy.  A day later, he quickly learned how to sit up from his tummy.  Now that he has a “safe” place to go back to, he would one step and back on his butt.  We had to use a very enticing bait to encourage him to crawl (i.e: my cell phone).  In this video, you will see that he would take one-step forward using his right leg and shuffle his left leg (crossed) forward.  He would then reset to his sitting position and repeat those motion again until he reaches his target.  So for now, he moves rather slowly but he can gradually scoot himself towards the sides of the mat where he meets the hard tile flooring.

Since about a week ago, Ethan started to exert much energy (like an incredible hulk or a body builder).  He would close all this 10 fingers tight and sometimes, you could see that his face even turn red because he used so much energy.  He probably is trying to tell us something but we still could not figure out his babbling.

He also started to be more vocal and added a whole bunch of consonant such as baba, dada and ah.

This video was taken an Italian restaurant in Linko.  He was a happy camper despite it was his bedtime.  He seems happy and also ate a good portion of his porridge.  This was one of the few times that we went out at night for dinner with Ethan since we sleep trained him.  He had been going to be around 6-7 pm and waking up at 6-7 am 🙂  However we are still struggling with his day time naps 🙁

Ethan loves helping us with laundry (not literally).  He just loves playing with the basket full with laundry.  He enjoy pulling the basket towards him and letting it go, seeing how the basket tipped back onto the ground.

The green patch on his forehead is a piece of aloe vera.  He had been scratching his forehead so badly that he wounded his forehead.  So, grandma found that aloe vera does help in healing the wound in a shorter time (before he scratch himself again)