Weight

10.1 kilos, weighed in at the doc’s during her one-year old well-child checkup.

Height/Length

76 cm, as measured at the doc’s too.

Teeth

4 incisors (2 top and 2 bottom).  Next 2 top incisors are becoming more prominent, and the next 2 bottom incisors are also making their appearance.

Motor Skills

• Prefers to walk around, albeit in a quite a *scary* manner, because she does sometimes look like she will fall.  However, Hannah most of the time manages to balance herself quite well, and can move around rather quickly while walking now.
• Can cross her fingers (middle finger on top of index finger).
• Very inquisitive and curious and keeps exploring things.  Her pincer’s grip is very advanced and she can pick up even minute things from the floor.  It’s a good thing too, because it forces me to keep the floor as clean as possible.
• Attempts to climb up the couch by lifting her legs.
• Can stand on tip toe for a while.
• Likes to climb out from her bath tub and stand up while I bathe her.  I have also started using the shower to bathe her.  Soon, I suppose we can do without the tub.
• Can wriggle her arm out from under her seat belt a la Tarzan style, just like her brother did last time.  And she can even do it both arms!

Communication and Social Skills

• Very consistently says “Mameh” or “Momma”, sometimes “Mommy”!  Says “Deh-deh” for Daddy, very consistently too.  Says “Yah”…and recently she said, “PAPAYA”
• Can point to fish in the fish tank when asked “Where’s the fish?”
• Can understand simple instructions like, “Give the block to Ethan”, or “Give Mommy the toy”.  I love the way she smiles as she extends her hand with the toy.  Sometimes though, she teases us by handing us the toy and then NOT giving it to us!
• Throws and tantrum and screams out loud when somebody takes her toy away.
• Has a really good sense of humor and laughs at almost anything, especially what her brother does. 

Food and Feeding

She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is loving every bit of her porridge!  She can finish quite a lot now, and eats at an amazing pace!

New foods she has been introduced to include:

• Cod fish
• Pork
• Watercress (I made watercress soup without the salt and fed her with it)
• “Kai Lan”
• Egg yolk
• Wolfberries (”Kei Chi”)

Hannah LOVES to drink water.  When I ask her if she wants to drink water, her face will light up, and when she sees me getting her purple cup and pouring water into it, she will grin excitedly. 

She can also drink a little bit from a straw tumbler now.  When we bought her her first straw tumbler, she didn’t know how to drink from it, but then I tried putting a regular straw into a small cup and from then on, she figured out how to do it.  Besides, she has her big brother giving her all the encouragement.

Both of Hannah’s grandparents made the trip to KL for her first birthday celebration, and we are really happy and honored that they could come

We also ordered full moon gift packs for everyone, because during Hannah’s full moon last year in the US, we didn’t have those full moon delicacies then.  So we decided to have them for her first birthday instead. 

The birthday lunch was at Italiannies The Gardens, and everyone arrived on time..good thing too, because we were all really hungry then.  Hannah also wasted no time in checking out the menu…

Unfortunately though, she pulled the menu from the table too quickly and the porcelain plate that was on top of the menu went crashing to the floor!

(Pssst….yes, that’s the Coach Resort I was carrying :))

We took the opportunity to take a few pictures with the birthday girl before our food came.  Here’s Hannah with her 2 grandmas.

Hannah wasn’t really herself though, and felt a little listless and tired, because the poor dear was still coughing and had thrown up a couple of times the night before due to the forceful coughing.

Ethan, though, was not interested in taking photos at all.  Instead, he preferred to fill his rumbling tummy first….with BREAD!!!!

Notice how he painstakingly peeled off the crusts…

He almost finished our entire plate of bread slices, and then he still had space in his tummy for his spaghetti marinara.

Meanwhile, Hannah enjoyed herself being carried by Ah Ma and Ah Kong…doesn’t she look comfy?

She enjoyed herself till she fell asleep!  Look at her comfortably getting her beauty sleep in the stroller we rented from Midvalley.

Meanwhile, the kids were all going hyper, running around and taking pictures everywhere…

…and besides we needed to buy some time to get the birthday girl all woken up and fresh for the cake-cutting.

I ordered this adorable birthday cake from Swee San.  I wanted the elephant at the top because Hannah really LOVES elephants.  When she takes her bath, she absolutely needs to hold and play with her elephant bath toy.  If I offer her something else, she would flatly refuse it.

Love the details on the side of the cake too.  It’s a marble cake with fondant all over.

Ethan very willingly volunteered his services to *help* Hannah blow the candle on the cake, while Hannah looked on in confusion.

The cake was rich and absolutely delicious, but because Hannah had not been introduced to eggs, butter and other stuff in the cake yet, I baked her her own special cake, just like I did for Ethan’s first birthday last time.

This one’s a carrot, banana and pumpkin cake, without milk, eggs, butter and sugar.  First, she hesitated when I fed her a slice…then she opened her mouth and took a bite…

…and then she wanted to feed herself…

Looks like it’s a HIT, baby!

After a very fulfilling lunch, we headed back to Pauline Kor Kor’s condo to open the birthday presents.  Again, Ethan had volunteered to help Hannah open the presents.

The initial plan was to allow Hannah to choose the present she wanted to open and then Ethan would help her open them.  But you know kids, there’s bound to be some grabbing involved.  And the birthday girl was also very determined to get her way!

Hannah received lots of lovely gifts, among them a beautiful crocheted dress from her Ipoh Ah Ma and Ah Kong.  The dress is handmade with love from Ah Ma.  We asked Ethan to display the dress.

…and Hannah to pose in it…

Ethan himself also gave his little sister a present.  He knows she loves elephants, so he gave her this:

Here are some of the PINK vehicles Hannah received too.  We got them in pink to deter the boys from playing with Hannah’s toys….errr…don’t think it worked…

All in all, a very enjoyable and memorable birthday celebration.  Happy birthday little Hannah!

A year has passed since you came into our lives
A year since you, our bundle of joy, arrived
You gave us adorable smiles and cutesy giggles
Happy happy birthday, my sweet darling little girl!

On Hannah’s birthday, we decided to take the kids out for a treat.  Pete took the day off and after we picked Ethan up from school, we headed over to Gurney Plaza.  Incidentally, we also took Ethan to Gurney Plaza on his first birthday.

We ended up having lunch at Chili’s…it had a been a long while since we ate there and we wanted to check to see if they had improved since then. 

Ethan of course enjoyed himself tremendously.  He couldn’t decide between the spaghetti and the hot dog, so he ordered both…and also had free flow ice lemon tea…which prompted a few visits to the loo…haha.

Hannah had some home-cooked porridge and was very well-behaved indeed.

Hannah enjoyed her rusk while we dug in to our meal….

…and sometimes she did her upside-down stunt…

…and at other times, the birthday girl was entertained by her brother’s funny antics…

We walked around Gurney Plaza a bit after our hearty meal, stopping at some of our favorite stores, including Ethan’s favorite Toys R Us (which he noticed a mile away!).

Oh, and here’s another shot of Hannah doing her infamous upside-down pose again….this time, a close-up:

Happy birthday Hannah!  Sure beats a day at the office anytime, eh Daddy?

I am often amazed at how much Ethan has grown, how much he is a big boy now, and the fact that he is starting to ride a bike makes me realize how true the adage “How time flies” is.

He will sometimes ask to be taken downstairs to the porch to ride his bike, and we’ll try to get him to do *something* first before we take him down, e.g. finish his dinner

Still needs a little fine tuning on the pedalling aspect, but he gets the bike to move anyhow…now, doesn’t Ethan look cool, bike, helmet and all?

Even though Hannah cannot yet eat these cookies, she still insists on grabbing hold of the cookie jar and strutting around with it…almost like holding her own bag!

I’ll have to admit she does look cute!

Endearing shot of Mommy and Ethan, taken during the reunion dinner.

Found some time for a family photo too. This year, we had reunion dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the new Flemington Hotel in Taiping. Atmosphere is certainly different than that of a reunion dinner at home, but one thing good is that we don’t need to do the dishes!

Ethan being *shy* when asked to pose for a picture.

…and now, he’s all warmed up!

Ethan being all big-brotherly and sharing a *conversation* with Hannah.

My little princess and me

In Ipoh, a picture taken with Ah Ma and Ah Kong, and the two girls: Hannah and her little cousin Caitlynn. The boys (Ethan and Collin) just weren’t interested. Haha.

Instead, they were busy with Collin’s birthday cake. In Taiping, Ethan was all “I wanna go to Ipoh to cut Collin’s birthday cake!” So here they are…those 2 boys observing a momentary silence as they await what will happen to the cake.

…and finally…Ethan striking a PIRATE pose!

Well…Ethan himself certainly thinks so!

…and then lately, he has been saying this…

Surely, he will give Ellen Degeneres a run for her money, huh?

Sometimes they fight and grab stuff from one another, sometimes they cry and scream…but it’s always a joy to see them play together so adorably.

I’m glad this is happening more and more often now.

And sometimes, there are even moments of great brotherly love being displayed…. (awwww….)

And sometimes things get out of hand….