Rebuttals

Wonder whether I should feel proud at his skilled rebuttals, or whether i should be worried...in any case, here are two conversations worthy of record, all in a day....

Conversation 1
My helper Ida told me Christian had a night terror and woke up crying at 11 something last night. He has these episodes occasionally, but I notice that it often happens only on nights when I put him to bed and he wakes upon my leaving the room. Perhaps this insecurity triggers the night terrors.

Anyway, she asked him while preparing him for school today..

"Christian, who cried last night? Was it Christian?"

Christian goes "Ida!"

Ida: "You cannot lie..I didn't cry last night..."

Christian: "I didn't say 'Ida cried'. I just say 'Ida!'"

Ida is amazed at his quick comeback and laughs.

Conversation 2
Popo asks if he missed her after a 4-day absence. Christian says yes. Popo said if he missed her, he would have talked to her on the phone. Christian quickly says he was in school....he was in school 'the whole day'. Popo asks him not to lie, he was home playing and refused to answer her when she was on the speaker phone.

He dragged his sentence like an adult trying to be patient with a child and said "why you didn't listen to me, popo.... I was in school...."

Night-time prayers

P brought Christian home from school early yesterday, cos he needed the car in the evening.

I managed to work with Christian on the logico set, and generally spent more time with him. We even went for a walk downstairs, just the two of us, and had fun counting and climbing the stairs back home. I feel he was much happier and settled, thanks to our time together.

I attempted to put him to bed last night. Just after the lights were turned off (and the little blue night light came on), he blurted out of nowhere "Let's pray to God, mama."

I was soooo pleased and brightly assented. "Ok! Why don't you start and I'll follow on."

So off he went.. "Thank you God.. for the cheese! He make the cheese right, mama? then put in supermarket and we buy the cheese and we eat it up."

(I didn't have the heart to interrupt/ correct him right from the start, so I just went uh-hmm even though cheese is technically made from milk which comes from cows which are made by God. Oh. And just an explanatory note on the cheese - he was just commenting before the lights went out that a file in the room had a picture on it that looked like emmental cheese (with lotsa holes) on it.)

And then he continued.. "Thank you God.. for apples. I like apples, mama. he put them in supermarket.. no no.. market, then we buy right.."

Mother nods - "Yes yes.."

Boy continues "Thank you God for corn.."

Mother starts pointing thumbs vigorously at self. Boy gets hint.

"Thank you God for mamaaa...." Mother grins and nods with satisfaction.

"...and Christian, and Daddyyyy.. and meimeiiii.."

And so on he went.."Thank you God for toyyyysss, cos I need to play toys.. and for boooookks.. cos I love to read books.."

(You can tell what's important to this child..)

there was also thanksgiving for the door, gate, window grills.. etc etc., born out of his fear of the Big Bad Wolf.

I told him God must be smiling as He hears him pray now. He responded with a "God is in my heart right?" I said yes, and that we'll see Him some day. That prompted a "We need to take an aeroplane and fly to see Him."

I decided to change tack and let my son know that although we can't see God right now, it's ok. God loves Christian very much and that's why he gave him a Daddy and a Mama who loves him very much.. Daddy and Mama are God's helpers.

Christian kept quiet, absorbed and then changed topics. :) I think he didn't quite know how to respond.
Nonetheless, i'm so pleased he has started to remember and think about God.

Milestones

Calista rolled over her left side twice on Monday!

P pissed me off on Sunday, when I asked him to come look at her whilst she was pushing her upper body up on the bed. Instead of being encouraging, he kept saying 'She's FaR from turning..' and insinuated that I was a impatient mum mentally willing her child to break world records. GRrrr..

I felt vindicated the next day, when we put her on her tummy, and her head wobbled a bit before her body turned over to face up. :) and it happened twice, so we can't dismiss it as a fluke!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mum told me that Calista started 'walking' yesterday. Hah.. it's more of her stepping reflex at work - she takes a step with her right leg when you support her and tilt the left side of her body forward / towards you.. took a step with her left leg as well.. it's sorta like dancing the salsa. =7

Kumon Write and Wipe number cards

I had bought these Kumon flash cards (red dots on one side corresponding to the number on the plastic surface on the reverse; the numbers are for the child to write and wipe and redo..) many moons ago and thought they were a waste of money cos Christian was simply not interested and too distracted at that point in time to sit down and focus on learning how to write the numbers properly.

To my great delight, he actually picked them up yesterday cos I had left them around after tidying up all the educational materials he had on my day off yesterday. He noticed that they were 'clean' and said "Hey, I didn't do this, this this this..." And we spent about 10 minutes writing numbers 1 - 20.

Gosh. I never thought I would be so proud of anybody writing numbers. HAha.. but it's not the activity itself that pleased me. Rather, it was the change in attitude. Looking at how serious he was tells me the future is not all hopeless. :)

(p/s the daddy bought 20 preschool workbooks from the Popular bookfest yesterday. I think he's overly optimistic in thinking that our son will finish them all, though I concede we can leave them for the daughter even if Ch doesn't touch some of them.)

Milk Strike!

love is patient, love is kind.

I wanted to pen a long letter to Calista since she turned 4 months old last Saturday, but all that's on my mind right now is the difficulty we experience in getting her to drink milk.

It is trying and frustrating, to offer milk and for her to react as if I / we are trying to poison her.

I have tried to research on the causes for her fussiness.. I have speculated.. (is it too rapid a let-down? No it cannot be since she reacts the same way to the bottle. Is it thrush? I am treating her for thrush and the coating on her tongue seems rather mild.. no spots on her gums too..).. I have researched and eliminated all the possible causes which are related to the mother (since she reacts similarly to my helper when fed via a bottle).

It is worrying, to see her drink so little, to see her hungry and yet wailing after the first two gulps of milk.
Did she develop a phobia of milk after choking from the rapid let-down previously? Is she teething? What Is Wrong?

I have resorted to nursing her when she's sleepy, though sometimes that backfires as well, cos there are times I pick her up when she's just into her deep sleep cycle, and all the persuasion is futile. I have also discovered that I am more likely to be successful in getting her to suckle beyond 1 minute if I carry her and walk / rock her while she feeds (though I cannot imagine sustaining that for long.. my puny arms are not likely to be able to support ms royal highness if she's 8 kg.. though perhaps that's wishful thinking on my part. How is she ever going to put on weight if she continues her strike?)

I read that nursing / milk strikes will pass. However, speaking with a friend whose daughter is similarly difficult when it comes to feeds, casts doubts on this. Her daughter's past 1 and still needs to be fed milk when rocked in a sarong. Sigh.

Prayed last night, whilst Calista kept me awake from 5am - 7am.. some divine intervention is required. (oh, and i think i used up my quota of 'happy nights'! No more midnight feeding and going straight back to sleep. But maybe it's linked to me pushing her to drink till she's no longer sleepy.. Sigh.)

I just have to keep trying and trying, I suppose, even though it is emotionally stressful. There are times I catch myself looking at her with anger, but she gives me those gummy grins which say she's so pleased to see me, and the anger dissolves in an instant. =/

I finally understand the wisdom of the biblical phrase 'love is patient, love is kind' now.

Photos of Calista at almost 4 months old

Snake soup

We were driving to school this morning and talked about possibly taking a slow walk past the colonial bungalows next Monday, when P and I are on leave from work.

My mum mentioned that there are snakes in the vegetation, and teachers are afraid to walk that path.

Christian overheard, was intrigued, and asked why the teachers are scared of snakes.
(To him, snakes are probably cute little creatures who go "SSSssss", as represented in the Leapfrog dvd. Hahaha.)

Think P tried to take the fear factor away so Christian won't grow up immobilised by his fear of snakes. He said the teachers are afraid of snakes because they do not know how to catch them and make snake soup.

That landed P in hot water, cos the questions came fast and furious.

"What is snake soup? What is snake soup? The snake will die right? Why will the snake die? The snake will be in the hot fire and the fire will be so hot and the snake will go "AHHH! Why you put me in?" right? Why we cook the snake?"


We conveniently arrived at the gate of the school at that precise moment, so P had a chance to distract Christian.

Haha..this makes me wonder if we are born to be vegetarians.

Sigh. The idea of eating cute animals must be rather hard for my baby to reconcile with our constant preaching of 'you must love animals and not harm them'. =S If only bak kwa was not so yummy.

Progress in phonics

Another conversation at the petrol station..

"Mama, why is it p-p-petrol? Why does petrol start with P?"

Mama gets all-excited over his demonstration of phonics knowledge. "YES! Petrol starts with P! You are RIght! Good job!"

Christian ignores me and continues "Why P, mama? Why not D?"

"Well...it's not Duh-trol right? It's Puh-trol."

I decide to test him further. "What letter does 'Peter' start with? Puh-puh-peter?"

C: "P! Peter starts with P!"

Me (excitedly): "Yes! What about... hmm.. can you tell me which animal has a name that starts with E? Eh.. eh..eh __ __??"

C (thinks a bit): "Elephant! Elephant starts with E!" then adds on "Dog! Duh-duh Dog starts with D right?"

I was mightily pleased at his progress, which hitherto seemed rather slow and limited to sounding the individual alphabets only. He'd never made the connection between the sounds of the alphabets and the words, until now.

Verbal precision

We were heading out after dinner last night to buy something from the nearest shopping centre. P noticed the fuel tank was running low, and said

"Ok dudes we need to go to the petrol station first."

Christian immediately interjects and exclaims: "Hey! Not dudes! Mama is a gal! Say gal, daddy, say gal!"

I laugh and comment to P, "He's truly the son of two lawyers. Such precision."

P chuckles and concedes "Yes, dude and gal, let's go."

Pets and Heaven

Hamster and Betta Fish have gone to animal heaven.

Was putting Christian to bed last night and told him "Let's pray." Was in the midst of giving thanks to God.. "thank you God for Christian, that he is healthy and happy and for his strong legs, arms, eyes, ears.. blahblahblah" when Christian suddenly butted in and said "Thank you God for hamster."

I was taken aback cos he seemed rather unperturbed by hamster's death. We discovered hamster's death two days ago and didn't mention it to him. Nonetheless, he observed himself that hamster's mansion was dismantled and cheerfully pronounced "Hamster died right? Hamster died!" I thought he was not affected, but him blurting out thanks for hamster made me wonder otherwise.

I agreed that ought to thank God for hamster. He kept repeating, hamster died right? I told him it's ok, hamster's in heaven and we'll get to see it again next time. He said he wanted to go to heaven and bring hamster home. I told him we can't do that, but it's ok. God will take care of hamster for now and we'll see it again.

He asked that we buy another hamster the next morning and I'd to explain that we won't be getting another one because it is irreplaceable. I ended with "i love hamster" and he quickly added "i love hamster too. Mama and Christian are sad, right?"

It inevitably ended with the usual 'Where's God? i want to see God..."

Christian's Progress Report (Meet the teachers session)

We went to his school this morning for the biannual 'meet the teachers' session.

The english teacher surprised us by saying he's intelligent and academically advanced. I raised my eyebrows and she kept repeating herself. She divulged that they let him sit in the 2nd row during class because he knows most of what's being taught already. Sometimes it appears as if he's distracted and not paying attention but when asked, he gives mostly correct answers. I pointed out that he refuses to listen when i try to teach him (she says he's not like that in class) addition and she said compared to his classmates he's already very good.
I found out that's cos they are still teaching things like numbers, counting, shapes and colours. Gosh. This school is really not very academic. (But P said it's a good place to build character and learn social skills. Sigh.)

She also mentioned that he's a leader. When the class was playing with blocks two days ago, he proclaimed that he wanted to build a wall. He proceeded to build one that took up most of the space in the room they were playing in, and his classmates took on his project, with him giving directions. She said they are trying to teach him to learn to be a follower too, cos there's a time for everything and he needs to be able to follow teachers' instructions. :)

The wimp in school; kept crying to be carried by Daddy

They didn't tell us much that was news to us when it came to his bad behaviour though.
One thing that stood out for both the English and Chinese teacher is his stubbornness and persistence. The English teacher said he's very observant and would prattle on about all that he sees when they go out to play.. and he'll repeat himself over and over again until he gets acknowledgment.

The Chinese teacher says she gets frustrated with him sometimes because he can be so stubborn and unwilling to own up to his mistakes. He'd not look at her when told off, and ignore her when she asks him to look in her eyes when she corrects him. Sigh. Hopefully that'll improve as he grows up, and that he won't get more stubborn. Though.. P and I are probably the cause of it, being rather stubborn individuals ourselves.

On a positive note however, she observes that he's better able to sit and listen during class instead of wandering around distractedly. His mandarin has also improved leaps and bounds and he is able to take the initiative to question her in mandarin (i.e. pester her) when he does not understand something.

Some comments in his "Progress Report" book this semester -


Verbal linguistic intelligence
"Christian is able to construct sentences to express his thoughts and feelings. He can inform the teacher of his needs or wants verbally. He is able to answer questions reasonably and understand and follow instructions well."


Logical mathematical intelligence
"Christian is a logical thinker and likes to solve puzzles. He can identify colours, shapes and patterns readily. He can count using objects and quantify the number of items with ease."


Musical intelligence
"Christian can easily learn a new song and will sing while doing other activities. He enjoys songs with rhyming words and finger plays too. When asked to stand in front of his class to lead a song, he may feel shy at first but after a while, he is more comfortable and will lead the group."


Bodily kinesthetic intelligence
"Christian has shown improvement in his self-help skills and is able to dress himself with minimal help from the teacher. (Wow he hardly does that at home!!) He may need to work on his fine motor skills more but has clearly shown progress, especially with his penmanship."


Visual spatial intelligence
"Christian displays his creativity in creating and building his own versions of boat, car, or airplane using legos. He is able to follow instructions when doing art activities and gives his best effort to complete it, though at times he does not like to get his hands dirty. 

Intrapersonal intelligence
"Christian takes pride in his accomplishments and gets upset when he knows that he did something wrong. He makes his own decisions and does not follow his friends blindly. Sometimes he gets uncomfortable trying new things and will resist at first, but with encouragement and assurance, he is usually able to try it out."

Interpersonal intelligence
"Christian will usually observe before he is engaged in activities. He has shown improvement in his social skills and relates well to his friends. He will show sympathy and even encourage his friends when he sees them crying."

Naturalistic intelligence
"Christian loves the outdoors. He likes observing plants and animals and examining unfamiliar things. Sometimes, he does not want to get dirty and this limits his exploration. He will get assurance from his teachers first before he tries to touch or feel items found outdoors."

Snippets of the past two weeks

5 Nov 2011
Calista has acquired baby-empathy. Her lips wil curl downwards and she starts crying when she hears her brother wail.
(Christian has a migraine and is perfectly fine after vomiting, much like Peter when he was young).

6 Nov 2011
Calista exhibits stranger anxiety. Wailed furiously when my MIL carried her. Thought she was perhaps startled by loud voices / noises; but it happened again a week later when my MIL came to visit. Stranger anxiety at 3.5 months..thought this was rather early cos most websites say it starts between 6 - 8 months. (And Christian's stranger anxiety started really late..and was very brief.)

9 Nov 2011
Christian refuses to clear his puzzles and sleep. "Don't take my puzzles away; don't keep!"
Amusing soliloquy ensues -
"You are my mama right?" *looks at me; i look quizzically back at him*
"So you are good right?" (Me: "Of course!")
"You won't take my puzzle away right?" (I pause and hesitate to answer.)
"Yes." *convinces himself*
"So you play with me, then."

9 Nov 2011
Christian broke out in hives. We initially thought they were mosquito bites from school and proceeded to put him to bed as usual, but I panicked after witnessing warts pop all over his body, nose and when his ankles swelled. Pushed the husband to send him to the 24 hr clinic at TMC. On hindsight, I think the doctor rolled his eyes at my overreaction.

Worried mother: "I was afraid he'll deteriorate and suffer from anaphylaxis."
Calm doctor: "No I don't think he looks like he's suffering from shock."
Mother looks at hyperactive son clambering all over the doctor's chair and reluctantly concedes "Sigh. That does seem to be the case right now."

Christian was only too pleased to not hv to sleep early and treated it as an adventure in pyjamas. He recognised TMC though, and asked why we were there when our car approached the building. "Why are we here? This is where mama.. meimei out right?" (I think he forgot the exact mechanics of how his sister was born..)

10 Nov 11
Calista's turn to see the doc. Brought her to the GP to confirm that I could give her the Daktarin oral gel i bought for her thrush, cos the insert said it's not for infants below 6 months. The doctor said he gave the same to his two children and in fact, it's not useful for older babies because they grow out of it. Oh well. Paid $20 for peace of mind.

She starts sneezing and having a blocked nose. Think she caught the cold from her dad / brother.

12 Nov 11
Calista finally poos after 4 days of smelly farts and nothing else. *grin*

Numbers, according to Christian

Gonggong asks: "Christian, what number is this?"

Christian: "4!"

Gonggong again: "What number is this?"

Christian: "5!"

Gonggong: "How about this?"

Christian: "Very good!"

(Gonggong is so tickled he repeats this story to anybody who would listen.)

Christian's pet fish

"Mama, let's not eat this fish okay? Let's not eat my fish okay? It's my pet fish."