A Bad Report

Today, Mama brought back a bad report from Teacher Sharon. ;(

When Mama picked me up from school, Mdm Chen, the teacher assistant wanted Teacher Sharon to mention something to me but Teacher Sharon said it's very common. Mama wondered what the issue was about and asked.

Teacher Sharon then revealed that I pushed classmates and snatched their toys when I was in class. I was not the only one who did this but it was "mainly" me as Teacher said. Teacher Sharon then hastened to assure Mama this is very common and nothing for me to worry about.

Mama said she will talk to me when she brings me to school. Hopefully, things get better with time. :D

Goodbye Bang Bang, Hello Cheyanne!

Hi all, this is me outside my new school waiting for class to start. The company that runs the playgroup program has a class near to where I stay but there was no vacancy for me because Mama registered me too late. In fact, my parents were already relieved that there was a vacancy at a centre some bus stops away.

A couple of weeks after school started, Mama called the company to request for a transfer for me to attend class at the centre nearer to our place and was told I will be put on a waiting list which she agreed.

Thanks be to God! 2 days after school re-opened for classes since Chinese New Year, Mama received a call that I can be transferred. Now, Mama does not have to take me to school in a bus but we walk to school every morning. More accurately, Mama walks to school with me in her arms as it's much faster to travel this way though Mama tries to let me walk as much as possible.

By then, I had already spent more than a month in my previous school. I could remember and say my teacher's name and the names of 2 of my classmates. Bang Bang is the nickname of the boy from China. He is supposed to be 2 years old but speak much better than me and a little bigger in size than me. Mama observed he is a boy who likes to converse though he speaks mainly in Mandarin.

Adi is the name of another boy. If Mama is not mistaken, he often cries when he has to come to school.

We did not have a class picture taken together but Bang Bang is most likely the one carrying the blue backpack and Adi is perhaps the boy on the right. Yours sincerely was pressing the buttons on the vending machine. Mama did not pay much attention when she took this picture. Papa told her to do so as a record of the Vending Machine Gang. :D

When I first started going to the school nearer to our place, Mama will tell me Bang Bang is in the old school. After a week or so, I got the idea of "Bang Bang, old school".

My new teacher's name is Teacher Sharon. Mama thinks she is a Christian as she wears a cross pendant. She seems more experienced than Teacher Usha by Mama's observation.

Every morning, Teacher Sharon will sit at the door and check my temperature and limbs for fever and blisters which are signs of hand-foot-mouth disease. She will greet each child good morning and if the child does not respond, she will say the word "morning" again, mouthing it more intentionally for the child to follow. Mama likes it that she is teaching even when doing something so unrelated to teaching. Me? I soon learnt to say "Good morning" to Teacher Sharon when she greets me.

Now that I am in my new school, the first name of my friend that I could say is Cheyanne. She is a cute little girl whom Mama knows exist because she was the only one left with me after everyone has gone home and Mama was in the class doing some paperwork with Teacher Sharon on my first day in the new school. Mama found out this girl's name was Cheyanne but she has no idea why of all names, I had started saying this name in association to my new school. Then again, Mama has never seen me playing with the girls in my class and so, it's not like Cheyanne is my special friend.

Mama imagines my Aunty Cheyanne in US will be so happy that the first classmate's name I said is Cheyanne. Hello, Cheyanne. :D

Spicy Soup?

Last evening, I had dinner with my parents at home. Papa went to the rice cooker to get more rice and the following conversation took place between me and Mama.

Me : Spicy soup?

Ma : No spicy soup. Mama didn't cook spicy soup today.

Me : Sorry, too bad.

Mama thinks I must have picked up this phrase of "Sorry, too bad" when she used it on me. She has to be more careful with what she says.

Another cute phrase I picked up recently is "Erm, I think so"

This morning, I was going to Seven-Eleven with Mama after school and she asked if I wanted yoghurt and my reply," Erm, I think so." Mama does not even know when I heard this from her. ;p

I am 35 Months Old!

Hi all,

I am 35 months old today!

For the past 2 weeks, I had been using Papa and Mama's handphone much more often. Mama thinks it started during the Chinese New Year season when I started asking for my parents' handphone with the intensity of a pregnant woman doing whatever she could to satisfy a craving. It's like an addiction. One thing that came out of this is that my parents figured out how to turn their phones offline so that I won't call anyone nor send any text messages when I play with their phones. The handphone is really something that keeps me quiet and still. My parents can even eat desserts in peace for some time when I was given a handphone.

This month, I also like to play "stuck". I like to get myself into situations which seems to have me seemingly stuck and I will tell Mama "stuck". After a short while, I will "unstuck" myself. See the picture below, I am "stuck".

And no, it was not an accident but I had purposely put my foot through this grille at the playground. How does Mama know? I said "stuck" to Mama and looked at her to see her reaction. I was not in pain nor in a hurry to free myself. Such incidents had happend a few times.

Mama remembers at least 2 occasions when I put my hand through the handle on the seat I was on when we were in a bus and I will tell Mama stuck. This can be a little stressful if the bus is approaching the bus stop near our place.

At the mention of playground, Mama had brought me to the playground at the void deck of our place more often this month. This is me on my way to the compound below our apartment. I had woken from my daily nap not too long ago and we were going there to blow bubbles.

I am also getting more adventurous. See how I want to come down the slide at the playground. Cheeky, huh?

On a more indoor side, I had been doing more jigsaw puzzles for the past 2 months. I would request to play puzzle and my current favourite is a 16 piece puzzle which has Bob-the-Builder in the picture below. I had remembered the 4 pieces that lined the bottom of the puzzle and named them by a picture on each piece. For instance, the piece at the right corner has a road sign with the number 10 on the board and I call it 10. The piece at the left corner has a road sign with a cat and I call it "cat". One piece has the words "Yes we can" and I call it"Yes we can". i will piece them together in the right sequence and applaud my own efforts. Many a times, Mama will applaud me too when I clap for myself.

Also, Mama thinks I have a good sense of aesthetics in terms of colour combination. Just look at this piece of work below. I chose the colours all on my own! It has yellow, green and brown on it. Pretty, right? :D I can say the names of the colours too. Mama was kind of afraid I might be colour blind when I took longer than others to say the names of the colours.

Papa and Mama also believes I am a technical person. I like robots. Mama discovered this when we went to the Science Centre recently and chanced upon the Robotics exhibition.

I also like to press buttons. I had been asking Mama to take me to the lifts at the void decks along our way home after school. I want to press the button to go to a certain floor and then go out of the lift to see the apartments. Mama was once pretty impressed that I actually knew there was a lift in a hidden corner which I managed to locate without effort. How could it be we both passed here almost everyday on our way to school and Mama did not see the lift but I did?

I am very quick to learn how to operate machines like the DVD player at home. I already know how to control the volume of the TV set as well as mastered how to switch the TV set to the AV mode using the remote control. This is especially important if Papa is watching TV and I want to watch Peppa Pig DVD. I must dictate my want to him by switching the TV to AV mode. Hide the remote control? No worries. I know where is the AV button at the control panel of the TV set.

Last week, Mama introduced me to a new remote control- that of the DVD player and in 1 day, I already know how to navigate the main menu of the Peppa Pig DVD we loaned from the library.

Mama could not remember when but I had started indicating what activity I want to do. For instance, I will say "puzzle, puzzle" and bring Mama to shelf in my room where the puzzles are kept. If I happen to see my water colour on the shelf in the study room, I may want to play with them too though I am not a big fan of it.

I can now jump up and down without holding anything to support myself as I lift both feet above the ground. Unfortunately, I do it mainly when I want to get my way when my parents refused to give me what I want. Sometimes, my parents will give in to me though Mama is trying not to do so because she does not want me to learn that if I do that, I will get what I want. ;p

I can also say all the letters in the English alphabet, count from 1 to 10 in both English and Mandarin though I need some prompting from Papa to do it in Mandarin. I am turning 3 soon... :D

How Can I Know God?

Papa has started teaching me about our Christian faith again. On Monday, he meant to teach me the answer to the question of how can we know God. The answer is : From the Holy Bible. Papa shortened the answer to only 1 word : Bible. And he tried to teach me the answer to the question. After repeating the question and answer to me, Papa tried to ask me.

Pa : How do we know God?

Me : (Pause for a while) Jesus!

Thank God for such a wonderful answer! :D

A Fat Hope and the Wet Reality

Last Thursday, I asked Mama for my tutu soon after lunch. Then I took out my bolster and pillow, planted myself on the floor before the tv and soon fell asleep even before 12.30pm. I did not even have my shower and my bottle of milk. Mama knew I was tired and she was hoping I will sleep for a good 4 hours to make up for the lost sleep the night before.

It was a fat hope and I soon woke up after about 2 hours of nap. In the end, Mama decided to take me out of the house. She decided on Science Centre as we can have a MRT ride along the way, get to play with water at the Science Centre and then view some exhibits which will probably allow me to press some buttons.

I had grown to be more adventurous since we last came. I really enjoyed myself at the water play area in the Science Centre.

This is probably my favourite as I keep coming back to it.

Here's Mama's favourite shot.

See my gathering instinct in the video below. I had often carried things by bringing them close to my body when my hands are full. Mama thinks I am very clever because this means I can carry more than what my hands can manage. :D

This one below is another of my favourite activity. Mama had to be really firm and threatened to bring me home when she discovered there was a sign which said it was dangerous to be in the pond which means I was not supposed to be in it. ;p.

Mama was kind of afraid I may refuse to leave. After spending about one and a half hour there, Mama managed to have me agree to leave by telling me I can go and take a lift in the Science Centre. I like to take lifts because I can press the lift buttons. It could also be that I had enough of the water play and was kind of getting sick of them.

A small hiccup though. The diaper pants I was wearing were not type used for swimming and it soon became very very heavy. Mama was afraid it may burst and she tried to have me wear a pair of shorts instead. It was then that she discovered she had forgotten to bring the shorts. To protect my modesty, she let me wear the pants I wore before I got wet and decided I will wear her T-shirt after water play.

After we left the water play, we went to the Ladies for Mama to change her pants and see, I really went around in Mama's T- shirt for the rest of the day. Now, the whole world knows Mrs Chen let her son wear her T-shirt in public.
We went to look at the exhibits and Mama discovered I really like robots. I came twice to see this exhibit of Robonova.



Mama thought I remind her of Yoda from Star Wars in this picture above, me in her T-shirt which was too long for me.

The next day, when Mama asked me about going to Science centre, instead of saying "play water" I said "robot". What a surprise.

After we left Science Centre, Mama was afraid I will be hungry and so we went to the Mac Donald's just outside Science Centre. See me eat my youghurt. :D

On our way home, I even got to sit in a upper deck of a double decker bus. Another first for me.

You would have thought that with so much stimulation and a short afternoon nap, I would have been tired out. That was what Mama thought. Well, I actually stayed up til almost a quarter to 11 probably because I was waiting for Mama to put me to bed. Mama, in the meanwhile, was waiting for me to sleep so that she can keep the meat she bought for our dinner in the freezer.

What a day! :p

I Said My Name!

For a very long time, I had been calling myself "An-neal", "Ah ner" and some more other pronunciation. Somehow, I just could not pronounce my own name. I could say "Denton" but not "Daniel".

Today, Papa taught me and finally, I could say "Daniel"!

Papa was probably very proud to show the results to Mama who was really happy for me. He showed Mama this following conversation

Pa : What is your name?

Me: Daniel

Pa: How old are you?

Me : Three years old

Mama was really glad to hear me say my own name. Although I still call myself An-neal, Mama believes this will be corrected in time to come. Hurray, praise God for another step of growth! :D

Delayed Memory

Recently, I am showing Mama that I remember things she did with me some time ago but had stopped doing for a while.

For example, a few weeks ago, I started asking Mama to sing me "Great is Thy Faithfulness", a Christian hymn during bedtime. Mama had sung this song to me during bedtime since I was a baby but when I was around 2 years old or so, she sung other songs instead. So you can imagine Mama's surprise when I told her "Grade is, grade is", indicating I want her to sing Great is Thy Faithfulness. Perhaps she started singing it again to me and it kind of brought back the association of the song and sleep. Nowadays, I particularly want Mama to sing Great is Thy Faithfulness just before I fall asleep. Just now, I even joined Mama and sang "I see" and "pardon" when these words appeared in the song.

Also, Mama had stopped giving me breakfast cereal in a bowl for a long while as I don't really take well to eating my cereals with milk from a bowl. Yesterday morning, Mama handed me a pack of Koko Krunch meant for me to eat from the packet. I asked her for a spoon and then a bowl and I actually ate the cereal from the bowl using a spoon. Delayed memory indeed. :D

Hot Mare??!!

To be more correct to the Singlish phrase, Mama should have spelt it as "Hot meh" but that's how I pronounce it, "Hot mare?!" complete with doubt in my tone.

I had been saying it for a while, perhaps the last week or two but my parents did not take note until recently. When it's meal time and if I am told some food that I want to eat is hot and I should be careful, I will say,"Hot mare?!". Yes, there is a tone of doubt and unbelief in my tone when I say this.

Or perhaps, if I find the food to be hot, I will also say,"Hot mare?!". Looks like I don't really know what I am saying.. :D

The Puppy Analogy

Many many years ago, Mama's maternal grandma once told her a hokkien proverb. Translated, it says when there are many puppies, the Mama dog won't even get to lick the stains of the food. This proverb kind of says if there are too many little puppies in a litter, they will eat all the food available and their mama won't even have food stains to lick.

Sometimes, the amount I eat reminds Mama of this analogy. Today, Papa told Mama that I ate almost half of the bowl of beef noodles Papa bought for his lunch. Thank goodness Papa also bought a bowl of porridge too or else, Papa would have to go hungry.. Cheers! :D

Developments in January 2011

As I approach my third birthday, Mama is noticing some more development milestones.

For example, I have started to have an idea of my possessions. One day, I just looked at my T-shirt I was in and said,"Ah ner shirt". I still can't pronounce my own name properly, calling myself "Ah ner" but there is no mistake that I am referring to the piece of clothing as mine. I now have a deeper awareness of my body parts too eg my pointer, my thumbkin, my pinkie.

For the past few days, I am also starting to sing.

Ok, Mama has blogged about me singing many times but those seem more like single episodes rather than repeated ones. This time round, Mama could see that I seem to be holding a tune, going on and on and at times, when I hear a song, I will sing certain words.

Recently,I heard the song that goes something like,"Oh Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun, please shine down on me.." and I will sing the words "sun', "me" when these words appear in the song. Also, I would often suddenly say "Clap, clap, tap, tap, amen!" when we were not singing.

Mama would sometimes ask me if I was feeling happy and that was why I said,"Clap clap, tap tap, amen!" You see, Aunty Siew Lan has been showing us the song If You Are Happy when she teaches the toddlers in church school. The song teaches us to clap our hands, stomp our feet and say amen if we are happy. I had learnt this song and this sequence very well. In fact, so well that even if other actions were done such when the song is sung, if you sing"If you are happy and you know it, do all three", I will automatically clap my hands, stomp my feet and say Amen even if we had been pulling ears, tapping thighs or doing other actions before "do all three".

Mama thinks what I am learning in church school is taking root in this way. Talking about church school, Mama has started teaching church school this year and she has been leaving me with Aunty Audrey and Aunty Siew Lan who are teaching the toddlers in the church. According to Aunty Siew Lan, I am much better in my behaviour when my parents are not around.

My parents often think I am unable to participate in the church school activities because I am too active and unable to sit still. Last year, Mama had often feared I will disrupt the programme with my walking around as well as me being hurt if I am not watched after (Mama once saw a pin on the floor when she was following after me during church school and she had picked it up in case other toddlers stepped on it by accident). Hence Mama dared not leave me unattended during church school.

Now that I had shown myself to be better when they were not around, the arrangement is that I will be left in the church school on my own with the teachers to help me integrate into the programme. Mama is very thankful for such an arrangement as this means she and Papa can be freed up to attend the church service together.

Just last Sunday, they attended the worship service in church together and I was with Aunty Mee Fong. Even though our family was late and my parents only arrived in the sanctuary in time for the sermon, Mama was really thankful there is someone to look after me. After the service, she told Aunty Mee Fong it has been ages since she and Papa last attended a church service together. Indeed, God honours us when we choose to honour God. :D

My Papa has also started our family Christian education. Now, if you ask me who made me, I will tell you "God" and if you ask me where is God, I will tell you "Everywhere". These are basic truths Papa wants me to learn.

I am still unable to fully understand these questions and answers though. Many a times, when Mama asks me who made a mess on the floor, I will also say "God" when in fact, I was the culprit. Mama often asks as she wants me to learn to own up to my mistakes. It's a little funny that I always answered "God" whenever I heard the questions that started with "Who".

Also, I am now able to jump up and down. I usually do it when I want something done my way. You know my Mama. Many a times, she wanted to give me what I requested for but if I throw a tantrum like this when I make my request, she will with-hold what she originally wanted to give me. She wanted me to learn that I will not get my way if I throw my tantrum. If I had fully understood, I probably will have my way more often.

By the way, I still love my dinosaur hair.

Many a times, I will ask Mama to give me dinosaur hair and request that she carry me so that I can see myself in the mirror when Mama helps me shower. Mama will often carry me so that I can see my dinosaur hair. Here's another picture. Really dinosaur-like, don't you think so?

During shower, I will often help to hold the shower head and spray the water onto the various parts of my body. For example, Mama will point to my left arm and ask me to wash that part and I will bring the shower near to my left arm and let the water wash away the soap on my left arm. Mama thinks I am really a big boy now, getting more independent! :D

That's about all for the time being. Mama will post more when she thinks of more things to write about.