Christmas Celebration

Godma, Godpa, Aunty Michelle, Uncle Toni, Josh, Micah, Aunty Corrine, Uncle Derrick and Ashley joined us in a potluck on boxing day.

Having 2 boys (3 years 3 mths and 3 years 9 mths) and 3 girls (5 mths, 13 mths and 14 mths) was really fun but exhausting! i'm so full of admiration and respect for childcare teachers now. Christian was initially shy around everybody (other than his godparents) but soon warmed up. 

Angie's yummy pies were such a hit, i got the 'recipe' from her... and Christian was hyper from all the logcakes egg tarts etc.. 

The adults had fun chatting, exchanging presents, while the young uns had a ride outside on Christian's tricycles and manual toy car.

Dear Michelle bought the boys matching shirts titled "Santa's Little Helper" (though I was secretly thinking "Santa's Little Terror".. okay.. applicable to just my boy..) and she let Josh wear it to my place so we could take a picture of them in it together. It was really cute, too bad the boys were so hyper and reluctant for us to take a pic of them standing still and next to each other. So the Daddys had to haul them up for a very reluctant shot.

All in all, it was a great end to our Christmas celebration (we had dinner with my parents on the eve and P's family on Christmas Day). We are truly blessed with so much... 

Guess who's who?

Guess who's who? Calista or Christian? (Check comments for the answer!)

A) 

B) 

The silly father, when viewing this post, blithely said "I saw this before. I saw this before. Why are you showing me pictures of meimei again?" -_-"

The brother did much better, with only a moment's hesitation before he guessed correctly. ^_^

The cookie experiment

We had some laughs at Calista's expense a few days ago.

She was 5 months and 5 days old when we placed a cookie right in front of her nose for her to smell. Her expression changed immediately, and as though seized by some strange passion, she used her little hand to grab the hand which was holding on to the cookie, and started sticking her tongue out demurely to make contact with the cookie. She licked for all it's worth, and raised her eyebrows in surprise when we took it away, turning her head left right wondering where that tasty treat went.

We tried letting her lick half a cherry but were not rewarded with a similar reaction.

And so the evil parents tried the cookie again. We took some pictures as she licked happily. Lo and behold, the girl burst into a furious cry when we took it away for good, causing P and I to guffaw.

This baby is more conscious of her surroundings with each passing day.

Mr. Precise

The other day, Peter and Christian were goofing around. Peter saw a picture of a man with a funny hat and proposed that they cut it out for Ch's scrapbook.

P: "Hey! There's a man with a peanut hat! Shall we cut him up for your scrapbook?"
Ch: "No! I don't want to cut him up!"
(We thought he was in one of his rebellious moods, but were surprised when he continued..)
Ch: "I Want to cut ArOUnD him!"

I laughed at P and said he's a failed lawyer, and he muttered some chinese saying about how the next generation surpasses the old.
___________________________________________________________

Yesterday, as I was putting him to bed, I narrated my day in the hope of boring him to sleep. So I went through all the steps from how we set off in the car, brought him to school, got sent to work, how i took the lift up, sat at a desk, typed in front of a computer.. met his Godma for lunch yaddayadda..

He was listening right up to the point when I said "I looked at the clock, saw that it was the end of the work day, packed my bags, took the milk, grabbed my pump, took the lift, walked out of the building..."

He promptly interjected, half-chiding - "Noooo...You wALked Out of the LIFT...."

I laughed and concurred.

Inner turmoil

The cracks in Christian's emotional state are finally appearing, 5 months after his sister was born.

My helper Ida told my mum a few days ago that Christian caught Calista looking innocently at him while he was playing and he said "Cannot look at my toys! I'll poke your eyes!"

My dad told me that when Christian came back from school yesterday and washed his hands, he ignored my dad's request for Christian to dry his hands on the hand towel, and instead ran to his sister who was reclining in a rocker and flung the water droplets at her face, causing her to blink in surprise.

P fretted that Christian is setting himself up for a shelling by P soon, at the rate things are going. I was of the opinion that scolding Christian will only make things worse, but P thinks we need to check the jealous impulses that Christian will inevitably be unable to curb on his own. Sigh.

The strange thing is, Christian doesn't act like that in front of me. I see him taking the initiative to care for his sister, by removing hard rattles and chiding her gently "you cannot bite this, it's hard!"

When I carry her and sort of thrust her at him, he'll lean and hug her, and attempt to carry her while seated. P thinks it's all for show though.. sigh.

My mum tried to test Christian the other day, by asking him -

"Do you love mama?" (Yes)
"Do you love Daddy?" (Yes)
"Do you love popo?" (Yes)
"Do you love gonggong?" (Yes)
"Do you love meimei?" (Silence)

Should I take comfort in the fact that he's diplomatic enough to not say it outright?

He's also been rather emotionally unstable these days. My mum asked me to stop scolding him for not eating, and I gave up cos scolding doesn't seem to help matters. So we let him be, last night..and he ate plain rice with soup. Spat the fish I gave him out, but had no problems chewing rice balls (it was the winter solstice yesterday). Sigh. He's lost weight, but perhaps I need to give him space and start racking my brains on areas where I can cede control to him, other than in choice of clothes.

Argh. Children.

[31st Dec update: The situation shows signs of improvement. The brother still brushes his adoring sister off, but relents when I put in a good word for her. Case in point - two mornings ago, I placed her on the bed in between Christian and I, too tired from the repeated night feeds to move. She kept pawing her brother, who brushed her hand off repeatedly. I felt bad for the little girl, and tried to soften the brother by saying "oh look..she really likes you.. she's trying to sayang her korkor"... when i next pried an eye open, i saw that he was holding her hand as her arm thrashed about.. :)
He's also taken the initiative to give her kisses on the thigh without prompting, or hugs when i mention that his meimei will be scared of the loud vacuum cleaner / blender, just like he used to be.
So, there's hope yet!]

Gratitude

How does one teach gratitude to a 3 year old?

Christian has been regressing a little in terms of behaviour. All throughout the trip (Thur - Sat) he had been picky about food, and refused to chew the meats, and would fuss over the littlest greens in his rice.

We were very patient with him, and negotiated with him to take a mouthful of rice interspersed with a mouthful of chocolate tart / other desserts. I wondered why he had been battling us during meal-times, given that it's been a while since he took issue with having to chew meat.

On Sunday, when P brought us to a nearby country club for dinner, our son barely ate the dishes and had mainly soup with rice. The one mouthful of chicken that he deigned to put in his mouth was chewed on for so long that it ended up being dry and fibrous. Peter laughed, but I was pissed. Christian ended up spitting the remains of the chicken out, and I just shrugged it off, not wishing to berate him too harshly over it.

However, on Monday night he insisted he only wanted to eat egg, rice and nothing else, after Ida presented him his dinner. I was firm, and said No, he could just go hungry if he didn't want to eat what we'd cooked. I was getting ready to show him a video of the 'hungry children of Africa', when he sulked and started pushing blocks under the shelf. That got a brief rebuke from me, and he pouted some more. I snapped when he threw a wooden block into a CPU (it was an old CPU which we weren't using) and whacked him on the back. He wailed silently before escalating to a full bawl which woke his sister.

I showed him the youtube video, which was more of a powerpoint presentation filled with images of malnourished African children, thinking it would help him understand that there are people in this world who go hungry, and would love to have food, any food at all. He stared silently, tears running down his cheeks, and repeated himself over and over "I want egg and rice. I want egg, Mama."

I explained that I understand him, I understand his preference of egg, but we can't always have what we want and even if it's food that's not our favourite, we cannot waste it nor complain about it, but should just eat it up. I thought I didn't get through to him, cos he remained stubborn. I gave up at the end of the video and walked away, asking Ida to try and feed him again later.

He finally ate after Ida bluffed him that some white bits in his rice were egg. He shouted "There's egg, Mama!" I knew it was a face-saving measure for him and just 'hmmmphed' without contradicting him.

Anyway, I put him to bed that night and just when I thought he had fallen asleep, he suddenly turned back to face me and asked "the poor children of africa have no food right, mama?" "No water right?" "No toys? they have no toys?"

"Can you show me tomorrow, the poor children who don't have mamas and daddys?" (He remembered what I said about orphans long long ago and made the link!)

"i like mama and daddy.. I like daddy because he brings me to the beach."

"Oh, why do you like mama then?"

He struggled to find a reason, then said "Because mama shares meat with me, meat from the table.."

then continued to ask.. "They have no school right?"

I of course took the opportunity to tell him that some children would love to be able to go to school, and he should be grateful for what he has. We ended by praying and giving thanks to God, though he kept interrupting me with questions of what the impoverished children don't have, that I'd to shush him so he would sleep.

Sigh. I hope it's not too traumatic a lesson for him. P thinks Ch might be too young for this, at 3.. but he should learn what real life is like for some other children. How else should I teach gratitude?

Presents & Christian

Two weeks back, Christian went to the MIL's house, where there were some presents under the tree. He ran to the tree, picked a present up, asked/said "Is this for me" and began ripping the paper off it.

P gave him a shelling and Christian ran devastated to hide in a room, crying "I have no presents"...P felt really bad cos he saw how crushed Christian looked. The MIL told P off for being so harsh, and went in to soothe him.

P thinks Christian's self-esteem must be at a all-time low, perhaps due to the arrival of his baby sister, and that we should all try to be more sensitive around him.

Anyway, I remembered this episode, and took pains to point to the presents under our tree yesterday, letting him know that he has a present from my mum and dad, and one from us too. I belaboured the point "You see, you have presents too.. Godma and Godpa will be giving you presents too..."

He asked "Why Gugu don't have present?" I was puzzled why he blurted that out, and he thought I didn't understand him, so he rephrased himself "Why Qiqi Jiejie's mama don't have present?" I realise now, that he was asking because I had only giftwrapped two presents for P's nieces, but had none for P's sister. Anw, i skirted the question and returned to the point about him having more presents.

He surprised me by saying "But I don't need any more presents." Pointing to the two under the tree "See, I already have presents, I don't need anymore."

Children can be so easily contented, if we don't build up expectations within them.

5 months old

Dear baby

It's been 5 months! Cliche, but time really seems to zoom past, especially when Mummy is kept busy with you and your korkor. 

Let's see.. milestones so far include - 

holding head steady when upright, keeping head level with body when pulled into sitting position, being able to pay attention to a small object; squealing with delight; and saying vowel-consonant combinations such as 'ah-woo'...

Your expressions are so raw and transparent. You frown in puzzlement when a new taste is introduced to you (we've started letting you lick bananas and papayas), you raise your eyebrow when surprised that the new thing which you thought you'd caught in your hand ends up tasting just like your usual fingers (cos you didn't manage to bring that thing to your mouth after all). 

You've not put on much weight though.. only 6.8kg.. sigh.. still so easily distracted by sounds and your brother that i've now issued a standing order for all to steer clear and keep quiet when I'm attempting to feed you. I'm glad you got over the milk strike though.. and my time away from you during which I pumped milk every 4 hours has actually helped to increase supply. 

You've started showing some regularity in terms of sleep time.. normally you'd wake, feed, and look around for 1 - 1.5 hrs, before rubbing your eyes and fussing.. you'd then fall asleep within minutes of aunty Ida slinging you. Night time sleep is still quite consistent, in that you'd sleep from about 9pm - 3am.. but you've taken to waking up 3 times between 3 - 6am, leaving Daddy and I exhausted. 

You've started to like going out.. kicking with delight whenever your grandparents unlock the gate, and kicking again when you notice the lift. ^_^ Too bad it's been rather rainy these few days, so we can't bring you very far during the walks.

Daddy marvels at how much you look like him, except without hair and a little plumper. I do a double-take sometimes too; it's a little unsettling having a mini-version of my husband stare back at me. :)

Mama must confess that i've been preoccupied with Christmas preparations etcetera, and might have neglected you a bit (my once-a-week flexible maternity leave was spent running errands, running to stores, wrapping presents). Hopefully January will be a better month! 

Lots of love

Mama

Birthday at Nikoi

P planned a great birthday for me. He tried to surprise me with a trip to a 'secret island', but of course he couldn't manage to keep it a secret for long, as he needed to consult and confer with me..."Should we bring Calista? Should we go? Maybe we should bring your parents?"

It was a short 3 days 2 nights at Nikoi, a beautiful cosy island off Bintan. Upon arriving at the beach house, Christian asked "Why we stay 2 days only? Why not 10 days?" I had the same thought.

We didn't bring Calista cos -
(i) she's 4.5 months old and won't remember it;
(ii) we won't be able to carry all the luggage, and ensure that the two kids don't fall into the ocean all at the same time;
(iii) we won't be able to kayak and roam about.. and will have to worry about how we are going to get her to nap in the day without a yaolan;
(iv) we have not made a passport for her!

I felt really guilty as we left the house, but she seems none the worse for it when we came home. I could also tell that Christian really enjoyed having all of Mama and Daddy's attention for 2 full days...he was a great traveller too.. taking the choppy boat rides well, and generally entertaining himself by playing in the sand as we ate (all the dining areas, and the house itself, have sand as flooring.)

As I told P on the way home, it's been a great birthday which reminded me of the Me before kids - i managed to kayak by myself, watch the boundless ocean at sunset, hear the waves crashing as I slept, and even managed to read an entire book! ^_^

We ended my birthday with a fabulous hazelnut crunch cake from Conrad which P asked Christian to keep as a secret from me, but poor guileless Christian blurted out...

Mama: Oh.. Christian.. Daddy just told the driver we need to go pick up something.. what can it be?
Christian: Your birthday cake!
Daddy groans and makes a face, before whispering into Ch's ear "It's supposed to be Daddy and Christian's secret...don't tell mama.."
Ch: Oh, cannot tell mama, it's Daddy and Christian's secret.. (playfully pushes my face away)
I bide my time, and then start a while later..
"Hmm.. did you come with Daddy previously to get a cake?"
Ch (Nods, then catches himself): Cannot tell you.. it's a secret. Cannot tell you about your birthday cake.. with chocolate and biscuit...

Mama bursts out laughing.

"Listen to me, you big Tiger!"

Christian's school conducts checks every morning as the students stream in, for signs of hand-foot-mouth disease.

There's a teacher who is not Christian's form teacher, but whom we all like a lot - Ms V.

She often does the morning checks and Christian and her have a standard 'pow-wow' session..it goes something like this -

Ms V: Good MORNing TigeR!
Ch (scrunches up his face, tries to look face and retracts his fingers into 'claws'): ROOAAr!
Ms V: What did you have for breakfast today, TIger?
Ch: ERm... XXXX XXX...
Ms V: Can I see if there's any breakfast left in your mouth??

Ch opens his mouth and roars, thus allowing her to check his mouth for little red spots (though he told us this morning "Teacher has a torch and checks the mouth to see if there's any sweet inside right?" Haha.)

Ms V pretends to be a Tiger too and asks him to throw the plastic gloves into the step-bin. Our son walks over to the bin with intent and does a scratching motion with his claws, looking fierce at nobody in particular. =7

She was at the school entrance this morning and recounted a funny encounter with our son. Apparently she was in his class yesterday and was speaking to some children. Christian wanted her attention but she was busy. He waited till he couldn't wait anymore, used his fingers to cup her mouth, turned her head towards him and said "You listen to me, big Tiger...!"

P and I were slightly mortified to learn that our son was so rude, but Ms V was tickled. I asked her what he said after he got her attention.

Ch: "Read this book to me please."
Ms V: "Why?"
Ch: "I like your..." (makes a up-down scratching motion at his throat)
Ms V imitates his up-down motion and asks "What's this?"
Ch: "I like your reading.."
Ms V melts and goes "Awww...of course!"

The helpful brother

Christian is slowly paying more attention to his sister, and proactively taking an interest in helping the hapless gal.

Incident 1 - the milk bottle episode
A few days ago, we were all busy and Calista was lying on a mattress on the floor, playing with her milk bottle (she had drunk her fill already and we left her be for a moment). The bottle rolled out of her still-clumsy hands, and onto the floor. I heard a shout of "Meimei's bottle fell down! Meimei's bottle's is on the floor!" whilst in the kitchen, and calmly told Christian to pick it up for her.

He pounced upon the bottle, nudged it towards her, and went 'Nah.'

No reaction from the sister, of course, other than a curious stare. He then tried to put the bottle in her mouth, but was afraid to push too deeply inwards, so she ended licking the tip of the teat. ^_^ I thought it was so cute and rushed to get the camera, but too late..he refused to continue, declaring "i feed meimei already." (i.e. i've done the job, not going to continue.)

Incident 2 - the rescuer


I had some fun at Calista's expense yesterday. I hung a rattle on all five toes while she was seated in the bumbo. She looked so confused when it made a sound as she shook her leg, and then tried hard to concentrate and reach it. I laughed and commented while Christian was around - "look, meimei's trying to get it off her foot!"

He turned around and promptly ran to help her push it off, before offering it to her, and then shoving it in between the seat and her body when he got no response from her. :) This happened twice as naughty mama kept trying to make her reach her toes...

I see that he's absorbed my nagging as well cos when he offered her some blocks the other day, he caught himself and followed on with a 'oh, you cannot have it, wait you eat and then you choke.' he offered his bolster to her yesterday too, and took care to ensure the bolster was not covering her face. :)

P says we nag too much though, and perhaps we should lay off the admonition. He was alone at the beach with Christian yesterday, and handed him a cereal bar with the exhortation that he hold it using the plastic wrapper, and not get his sandy hands on the cereal bar. P then turned around to get Christian's water, and turned back to see Christian's sandy fingers on the cereal bar, with a portion of it dropped on the sand. He launched into a "I told you not to do... why did you do it?? etc etc" Christian looked down and at a corner, and glumly handed the bar back without a word. P felt horrible to see him looking so defeated and said that's worse than if Christian had cried.

We have to walk the tightrope between crushing his self-esteem and inflating his ego..and it's really not easy to know what he needs, and when.

1, 2, 3, 4, Counting to the Number Four

Dear Calista

This letter is rather overdue, given that you are already 2 weeks away from turning 5 months old. Oh well, it's been a busy month...

But first, here's a song I came across by Feist, on Sesame Street -

Lyrics | Feist lyrics - 1234 [Sesame Street Version] lyrics

It's been a rollercoaster month.. You've brought us so much joy whenever we come home from work and see you kicking in glee as you catch sight of our faces. Your antics provide us fodder for conversation and laughs; your cuteness makes our heart melt.

I've finally been able to put an accurate description to what you do in the middle of the night, when you are all swaddled up and wish to wake me up so I'd feed you - mermaid body slamming. You'll flap the lower part of your body and slam it against the bed so sleepy mama will rouse from slumber and carry you. Given that you are all swaddled up, you really do look half-human, half-fish. =7

You've also become so expressive..you'd cough and cough politely and softly when we leave you on your playmat for too long.. it's your way of saying 'come carry me now, please'. You have demonstrated your meekness.. we marvel at how polite and patient you are! :) You've shown your temper when things don't go the way you want though..we hear your shrieks of anger and shrill cries and think 'oh dear.. she might just end up more difficult than her brother, haha.'

You can't talk yet, but you can certainly communicate with your deep exhalations signifying frustration/ complaint, your gummy grins, and various 'oohs' and 'eeehs'. I am always amused whenever I see one brow of yours raised in puzzlement too..
I've heard quite a few "mam mum's" coming from you this month and it usually signifies "i want milk!"
Daddy insists he's heard a "pa pa" too though I tell him it's too early for those syllables to mean anything to u.. u've no idea that they r meant to refer to that tall man who constantly makes funny faces to make you laugh.

You've started playing favourites a bit this month though. You cried, two weeks in a row, whenever we were at Nai Nai's house and she tried to carry you..sometimes you'd even cry when Daddy carries you.. you also wailed at Popo's house, looking around in bewilderment as if wondering 'Which planet have I been transported to now?' We've decided we need to bring you out of the house more to expose you to different sights and sounds.. and you've quickly adapted and grown to like being out.

You've grown much stronger.. and rolled over! You've not done it much since that fateful day your daddy and I witnessed your first double-roll.. it's our fault though..we oughta put you on your belly more often, but we are often afraid to do it after your feeds, for fear of creating spit-ups. You've started doing crunches whenever placed on a high pillow too.. you'd try and try.. and i'd laugh at your cute expressions until you get upset and I scramble to lift you up.

We've placed you in the bumbo and you look super cute in it.. but unfortunately you don't seem to like being stuck in it for too long so we refrain from putting you in it often..your favourite mode of transport is still the sarong.. like a koala hugging a tree, you can stay in the sarong for a long long time and even fall asleep in it.

You've also turned into a drool monster and love to mouth anything you can get your hands on. And well, if there's nothing for you to drag and put in your mouth, your index finger is just as yummy to you. (I must confess at this point that your cheeks look so delectable that Daddy and I find it so hard to resist chomping on 'em.)

There's still not much of a schedule in place for you.. it's mostly our fault cos we aren't able to get you to drink much at a time.. and especially on the days i'm off from work, i'd try to avoid giving you the bottle so you work really hard to get your milk.. and you often give up.. sigh. There have been a few occasions where you napped about 2 hours, giving Aunty Ida some time to focus on her housework though. We are hopeful that it can only get more consistent in the months to come.

And since we are on the topic of consistency, I should add that you have been consistently poo-ing only once or twice a week..it's apparently normal since breastmilk is easily absorbed by the body.. but i keep having the nagging worry that perhaps it's a sign that you are not drinking enough.

Oh well..it's only been 4 months, but it already feels like you've been in our lives forever. We can't wait for you grow bigger and stronger, and I'm sure your korkor would love to be able to play with you at the playground...so jiayou, little one!

Big hugs and kisses (and little chomps on those cheeks) from mama.

The beginning of the end?

It makes me sad to type this, but I think my breastfeeding journey with Calista is about to come to a premature end.

I was initially happy when she was born, cos she seemed so much less demanding than her brother, and we were able to establish a healthy supply (and even such a surplus of milk that I had to limit the amount of frozen food we bought because the space in the freezer was taken up by all the milk i expressed).

However, even though she recovered from her milk strike and has regained her appetite, my supply has dropped drastically.. I suppose it all stemmed from my return to work. It's such a vicious cycle. She has gotten used to the ease of drinking from a bottle and is reluctant to work hard to suckle.. I grew frustrated with her refusal to drink, would give up and let hours go without expressing the milk (in the hope that maybe she'll want to drink an hour later, so i'd better leave some milk in me for her).. my body thinks I don't need to produce as much.. Now i can feel the hard lumps in me.. very soon, I won't be able to produce much more. :(

Just a few weeks ago, P and I were pondering how long I should try and breastfeed her for.. he suggested 2 years (which is of course easy for him to say since he doesn't hv to do any work in this respect). At the rate things are going, I'm afraid we'll be switching to formula in 2 months' time. :(

It's sad how fast things have degenerated from that happy place a few weeks ago.. all relationships are fragile, and this is no exception.

[31 Dec 11 update: The trip to Nikoi helped to up my supply thanks to my consistent pumping...and I think we'll be able to make it past the 6 month mark without problem. :) She's still not drinking very much, though her intake when i'm away at work has increased from 300+ mls to 400+ mls.. oh well. At least things aren't as dire as it seemed. Just praying she won't start a milk strike again. I'll try to continue giving her mama's milk as long as I can! (The dear hubby bought me sparkly baubles as a reward for my breastfeeding efforts. ^_^ After a particularly trying night, I told him "yeah, i think i've earned it.")]

God and parenting

I realised I've been blogging quite a bit about God these days.. but that's only because i keenly feel His presence in my life, now that i'm a parent myself.

When Christian was first born, and was such a colicky baby, it made me realise how God must have felt, trying to communicate with us lesser beings, and us, being immature and unintelligent creatures, did not trust him and continued wailing as though He had abandoned us. Many times when baby Christian was crying, i wish he could understand through the sobs that I'm there, it's alright, there's no reason for him to cry... and it then strikes me that perhaps God feels / felt the same.

The other day, when P was supporting Calista by 'hugging' her from the back so that she wouldn't fall, he was moving her arms for her and I saw her puzzled expression. She tried to look up, left and right, but couldn't figure out who was in charge of her movements and what was happening. It made me think of our relationship with God again...sometimes things happen of His doing, but we are not able to comprehend His involvement in it.. and continually complain about His absence etc etc..when in fact, He is cradling us and in control of our lives. We are like the lost baby trying to figure out a higher order being, but unfortunately limited by our 'intelligence' and can only look straight ahead into the empty space in front of us..

Dr Seuss

A while back, P and I were worried about Christian. You see, our boy who was perhaps about 2 years old then, had the attention span of a gnat. Yes. He would flit from one activity to another activity, and had little patience for things like colouring or building constructive things.. P and I were wondering to get him tested for ADHD, or some other developmental disorder cos I read of girls the same age who could work on problem sums already.

Two nights ago, our worries were put to rest when I realised he sat through 84 pages (i counted, yes.. and excluded those pages with pictures only) of "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!".

It was tiring reading to him after a long day at work, what with my insistence to dramatize the story with lots of contrasting voices, and emphasize the rhythm and rhyme of the prose. It was all worth it though, when I heard him laugh heartily at the Cat's antics. =)

I'm so glad he enjoys being read to.. hopefully this will help his brain develop links between words and imagination, which is so much better than just leaving him to be a passive recipient in front of the ipad / tv, don't you think?

*tired but happy mum*