Milestones so far…

Netanya has been talking alot more intelligibly lately. She started at around a year old, speaking only mono-syllabic words then. Now at 20 months old, she can manage 2-syllabus words and sometimes even chained 2 or 3 words together to make a phrase. With some prompting, she can count from 1 to 10 in both languages and recognized most of the letters in the alphabets. She also speaks quite alot of chinese. Just this morning as we were driving to the store, she pointed out excitedly, “巴士，妈妈！School bus, more school bus.”  I think it won’t take long before she’ll start talking my ears off.

She loves it when we sing to her, her favorite songs include, Wheels on the bus, If you’re happy, Twinkle twinkle little stars, London brigde, 找朋友 and some other action songs. It used to be that she would only listen and follow the actions, but recently, she surprised me by trying to sing along too. Just last week, I saw her singing Wheels on the bus while spinning her stuff animals around. It was too cute, wished I have video recorded it.

Emotionally, she has definitely matured from receiving affections to now knowing how to show her affections. She gives hugs and kisses to family members. And she could empathize with us if we are in discomfort. A few days ago, the kids woke up extra early, so I spent a few minutes on the couch to get some extra shut-eye. Just as I was about to take a trip to slumberland, I heard Netanya making some noises in the room, I opened my eyes, the next thing I saw was probably the most heart-warming thing that would melt any mom’s heart. My tiny tot has retrieved my blanket from my bed, and was dragging it with all her might from my bedroom to the living room, for me. I was so overwhelmed with love, I will remember that moment for a long long time.

Socially, she has developed from playing along side friends, to playing with friends. Now Russell really enjoys playing with his sister, likewise Netanya with him. They have all kinds of imaginary games, some take them to space in their space shuttle, or into the deep blue sea in their submarine, or they would be fishing from a boat, or having a tea party, or they are vets giving shots to all their stuff animals. It is so good to watch them play together so well. Even though they go through the usual stuff like vying for the same toys sometimes, with a little reminder (and some interventions), those squabbles usually end quite peacefully.

It is exciting to watch her grow and learn new things everyday. I am very priviledged to be a stay-at-home mom, I wouldn’t want to miss any of these precious moments.

Organic helmet, anyone?

Mine, Me and Myself

 

Netanya’s 3 most frequently spoken words.

When Russell is playing with a toy that she wants, she’ll yell “Mine!” Time to teach her the magic words “Please” and “May I”.

When her brother wants something from her, like a crayon from her side of the easel, she’ll scream “Mine crayon, mine crayon, mine!” She is getting very possessive over things lately. Oh boy, looks like the peaceful days are over.  

“Do you want Mama to read to you?” The reply is “(my)self”. She wants to read by herself.

Every time when she gets into the carseat, and I want to do her buckle, she will kick her legs and cry “self, self, self!” We have to wait until she finally buckles up before we can drive off because she will not let anyone help. Sometimes the wait can be quite frustrating, especially when we were in a hurry. But when she finally buckled up, she would be beaming with pride that she did it all by herself.

She really enjoys being independent and doing things by herself. She would not let us feed her at mealtimes, she is always covered with scraps of food from head to toe. What a mess! But the only way we can get her to eat is to let her self-feed. She wants to put on her own socks, do her own buttons and drinks from a real cup (not a straw cup), yet she simply can’t do any of these because she doesn’t have the fine motor skills to do them. She gets very upset when we try to help and also frustrated that she can’t do what she wanted. It’s a difficult phase she’s going through now, poor baby, but every time when she achieved a task she was so filled with a sense of accomplishment that the growing pains were all worth it.

being bilingual

When Russell was little, before he learned to talk, we did not make an effort to expose him to Chinese language. My hubby and I converse 90% of the time in English, plus Russell did not start talking until he was 15 months old, so we thought sticking to just one language would be easier for him. Until he was 2, I tried to introduce him to Chinese (very half-hearted effort then), he was not receptive at all. Nonetheless, with the influence of the Chinese playgroup, and as he gets older, he became somewhat more interested and spoke a little more than before.

After  my experience with Russell, I realised that I should expose Netanya to this language from day 1.  After reading some articles about language-learning for children, the conclusion was there was no evidence that children who learn more than one languages at the same time were in anyway confused or lagging behind kids who learn one language at a time. In fact, under normal circumstance, the earlier the child starts, the better it will be for her to master 2 or even more languages.

Since Netanya was born, I made it a point to speak to her only in Mandarin. Sometime I struggled to find the right vocabulary and I had to subsitute with English words. But Mandarin is the language of communication between us, and daddy still speaks to her mainly in English. In this way, she is immersed in a world of 2 mother-tongues. And because of Netanya, the whole family’s spoken-Chinese has improved, especially for Russell. Sometimes he would say something to me in English, the next moment, he would turn to his sister and say the exact same thing in Mandarin. I am very encouraged by his progress.

Progress, I say, but still far from the level of proficiency a 4 year old should be at if I compare him with kids his age in Singapore. For example this incident that happened 2 days ago. The kids and I were walking home from the mail box, Netanya turned to me and said, “妈妈，抱抱…” I picked her up, took a few steps, then realized that with mails in one hand, it’s really hard for me to hold her, she’s pretty heavy now, so I asked her, “妹妹,你自己走路好不好?” She shook her head, at that moment, Russell was listening to the whole thing, blurted out, “妈妈, 我可以跑路吗?” I was trying so hard not to laugh, he meant to ask me if he could run on the sidewalk, not knowing that “跑路” has a totally different meaning (in Singapore, we interpret that phrase as escape from trouble, ‘zao lor’ in Hokkien) from the literal one. Ahem…I was good mommmy, I controlled myself and did not even giggle, I corrected him gently, “你要跑吗? 可以啊, 可是要小心.”  We still have a long way to go, but at least he is trying.
 

Russell is 4 years old!

I can’t believe that October just fly by so quickly, maybe because the kids had been sick for the almost 2 weeks in October which made me too exhausted to blog. Then when they finally got well, the weather was so beautiful lately, it made me want to bring them outdoor as much as I can before it gets too chilly to play outside. There were birthdays to celebrate and pumpkin patch to go to, and trick or treating too! No matter how overdued this is, I just have to blog this, how can I not, my son has turned 4! 

Our baby (Ricky and I still affectionately call him that) is not a baby nor a toddler anymore. He is a  preschooler now, his own unique person, growing to become more independent by the day. He is such a joy in our lives, we can only thank God for giving us this precious gift. 

            1 day old                                      1 year old

           2 years old                                          3 years old

                                       4 years old

Words cannot adequately describe how I feel when I took time to browse through his pictures. I am so proud of him. Sometimes I am guilty of comparing him with other children his age and feel that he is not as outgoing, doesn’t read and write as well as some of them. But there are so much about him that I should be thankful for and only hope that he will remain this way as he gets older. He is kind-hearted and loving. He is obedient and my good helper. He is cheerful, always singing and easily contented and much more. At times I can even confide in him and he would hug and kiss me to make me feel better.

We are so blessed to have Russell in our lives.