A wave and a kiss

Since the beginning of this week, Shen Liang's insecurity has left him. Arriving at school, he not only waves goodbye, but also blows me a kiss.

Merry Christmas

Winter Solstice 冬至

Of saying, "I love you!"

This evening, I tucked Shen Liang in as usual. And as alwaysl, he kissed me on both cheeks, gave me a hug and said, "Night, night." As he was lying down and making himself comfortable, he said, "Mommy, I love you!" Oh how I wept and wept and wept, in fact, I am still weeping.

Play school progress

After three weeks in play school, I discovered some remarkable improvements in Shen Liang. The most important thing... he is not clingy anymore. I think the trick is to just turn my back and walk away after telling him mummy will be back to pick him up later. And he will just nod in acknowledgement and proceed to walk in.

He has a jolly good time in school. There are now six toddlers in his class with two teachers to care for and supervise them. This is what I discovered when I spied on him during tea time last week.



If you haven't yet found him, he's the one on the pink stool. He was conversing with the other children! Which is really astonishing as he can barely speak in complete sentences. And the amazing thing is they understood him. Gosh!

His speech is developing although at a snail's pace. These are his more frequently used sentences...
"Mummy, want dancing qin," asking me to play him the ABBA album.
"Mummy, where daddy?" when looking for his daddy.
"Mummy, more muum-muum," asking for more food.
"Bye bye see you," when asking you to go away.
"Mummy, sit down there," asking me to sit down.
"Hapetue cake," very short name for Happy Birthday To You cake. LOL!
And his longest sentence...
"Mummy, rain! Rain! Mummy car wet wet! Bring apella," his way of saying it's raining, and mummy's car is wet sitting in the rain, and wants to put an umbrella over the car.

Here are some improvements that make me proud...
1. He insists on washing his hands with soap after going to the toilet.
2. He wears his own shoes now, although painstakingly slow. And always put his shoes back to their proper place.
3. He put away his blankie and pillow after naps, but takes his Mr Bear with him.
4. He can bath himself properly, and most of the time, I only supervise.
5. He brushes his own teeth and I must say he does a very good job, but needs help with the upper teeth.
6. He is less messy now, he has learned to put away his toys instead of scattering them after playing with them.
7. He loves coloring now, and asks for crayons and coloring books everytime we go shopping.
8. He sings a lot now. Although most of the time, we have no idea what he is singing.

Early this week, the teachers planned a little picnic out of doors at the school compound, and we were asked to send some food with the chilren. So Shen Liang went to school with a box of JJ Mini Rolls. I also sent the camera to school with him, and the teachers took these pics.

Cleaning hands before eating... hahaha...


And look how he guarded the tray of cakes...


Why? Because, when I fetch him from school, the teacher told me that, although he shares the cakes with all his friends, he refused to eat anything else apart from the cakes. Ha-ha-ha... a true JJ fan.

Next week, they are having a Christmas party at school, and we are asked to bring a gift. This must be very interesting. Shen Liang is already singing Jingle Bells everyday.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

This year our efforts in putting up the Christmas tree was delayed due to the mal-function of last year's lights. We have an eight feet tree, and OTT hubby wants the tree as brightly lit as possible. Several of our nine strands of lights failed to work this year. Since the baubles can't go up before the lights, and hubby was being very fussy on the choice of lighting, the tree was bare for about one month! He wanted LEDs for the tree this time. But they don't come in the warm tone that I like. At first we settled with white LEDs, which are an absolute terror. After much complaints from me, hubby exchanged them for orange LEDs. They are great, but hubby made the silly mistake of connecting all nine strands together, and we blew up everything. Well, this is often the result when he refused to consult his wife, the electronic engineer. "The guy told me I can connect all of them together!" he claimed. To the guy's credit, he let hubby return the LEDs and gave us another nine brand new ones. This time, we are only connecting three parallel with three strands each. And here's our tree!

Shen Liang sings ABBA

Singing to the tune of ABBA's Money, Money, Money...

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"

A rockin' weekend!

Four families!

One rocking weekend!

Code named Rombongan Birthday, we headed north to the Pearl of the Orient for a big time birthday celebration, at non other than the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel! Here are our birthday four, whose birthdays fall in the same week!



It was a haven for the children... water, sand and slides! You can see that Shen Liang was having a fantabulous time.







Yup, after a couple of trial runs on the water slides with Daddy, Shen Liang decided that sliding down the tall and slippery slides was no big deal, and easily done alone... to Mummy and Daddy's intensed panic.

It was a great weekend for everyone, fun for the children, and great catching up for the adults. And of course to top all the great stuff, we were at the heart of cullinary kingdom, stuffing ourselves crazy with local delights too.



More pics here.

Of walking in willingly

No encore today. :(

And he walks in willingly

First, let me elaborate this 'clingy' circumstance.

Day 1: As I drove into the school compound, Shen Liang was excited, because he remembered his few trips here during the enrollment process, when he got to play with the slides and toys. He didn't miss anybody, and was very happy throughout the day.

Day 2: When I turned into the school compound, Shen Liang was quiet. We had a difficult time prying him from the car seat. And when I carried him in, he held on to me so tightly that I could hardly breathe. His teachers had to find something or some activity to distract him. When he got engrossed, Joann and I had to disappear very quickly and discreetly like some bugglars.

Day 3: Shen Liang said, "Ng-moi, ng-moi, ng-moi," while waving a NO gesture with his hands. And what happened on day 2 followed.

Day 4 to day 8: As day 3.

Today...
He was quiet as my car approached the school. When I parked, Joann handed him his school bag, he took it and said, "Thank you." We got down from the car, he walked towards the entrance with us trailing. This has never happened before. All the teachers greeted him and he gave everyone a sweet smile. He took off his shoes, and placed them at his slot at the shelves. And then he just walk straight into his classroom, without looking back. Joann and I was dumbfounded and didn't know how to react. I guess we got used to the disappearing act. Ha-ha-ha...

So, lets hope we have a splendid encore tomorrow and the day after and after and after, eh?

Today at school

Shen Liang was especially fussy and clingy this morning, so I have Joann stayed with him at school for about 30 minutes. A funny thing happened during breakfast, and I must share this with you.

This morning, they were having bread and Milo for breakfast, but a girl sitting next to Shen Liang brought muffins from home. Shen Liang quickly noticed the muffins and kept saying, "Circle... circle..." while pointing to them. He wanted to snatch them, but Joann quickly stopped him, and told him he cannot just take food from another's plate, it is rude.

What happened next was truely the art of luring in action. Shen Liang inched his chair closer and closer to the girl while smiling to her continuously, and a very sweet smile too. When he was within touching distance, he carressed the girl's arm, then slowly, he patted her shoulder, and then he stroked her hair. The girl was very friendly too, she seemed to enjoy his attentions, and kept saying, "Very cute baby! Cute cute baby!" And very slowly, Shen Liang's hand moved, inches by inches, when he got to the muffin, he quickly grabbed it. Good gosh! I can never ever imagine my son to be so wicked! Aaaargh!

Anyway, Joann, of course, quickly returned the muffin to the girl, but to her credit, she felt neither threaten nor upset. Infact, she was very willing to share, or maybe the muffins were no good? Heh-heh-heh... Nah, I think she is totally friendly and generous, and likes to follow Shen Liang around too.

After breakfast, Shen Liang quickly made his way into his class, joining his friends, and Joann took the opportunity to escape. When I went back to the school, Joann was hiding behind a car. Ha-ha-ha... I asked why, and she said the children were lining up to go out to the outdoor play area and she doesn't want Shen Liang to see her and start getting clingy again.

I consider my child to be a very bold toddler, totally not shy with strangers and very outgoing. The fact that he is still clingy when we drop him off still frustrates me. The principal continuously console me that I should give him time, considering he is only two and half years old while the others there are more than three, and there is still separation anxiety, especially for more than eight hours. But of course he is only bawling when he spotted us leaving, and only for about three minutes at worst. After that he will resume what he was doing and totally forgotten about us. The teachers feel that he is easy to care for because he follows instructions well. Now this is something that does not happen at home, I tell you.

Today, I am totally consoled and counting my blessings. This morning, there are two new children joining the holiday program, a boy and a girl. When they noticed that their parents were not there, the girl screamed and cried at the top of her lungs until everyone in the school got panicked. She cried so much until she peed. The same happened with the boy, but instead of peeing, he vomitted. Despite their experience, the teachers were not able calm them down even after an hour, and hence needed to bring in their parents. Shen Liang stared at them wide eyed and kept saying, "Ko-ko cry, ceh-ceh cry."

When Joann got into the car, she told me, "No wonder everyone in the school keeps saying Shen Liang is well behaved, because he is really very well behaved compared to some." OK, I am indeed counting my blessings. I am not going to complain my son is clingy anymore.

And it's a week

Shen Liang has gone to school for one week, and I must say I am very amazed with his improvement. Although he is still clingy when we drop him off every morning, he gets on alright after we left. The play school encourages a lot of independence, and the results are apparent.

Breakfast is served around 9.00am, where they are encouraged to eat on their own, even with mess. The teachers will only come to guide them if they refuse to eat. The little cafeteria is colourful and jolly, and has a little black board at the front, like those at the sidewalk outside the diners, featuring the menu of the day. Although Shen Liang shows food preference from time to time at home, but in school, he gasak everything. The teacher told me when he sees other children eating, he follows. Looks like a good dose of healthy peer pressure goes a long way.

He enjoys the enrichment activities, but he likes the outdoor activities best. The other day, he kept asking the teacher to let him draw by saying, "Draw, draw, draw," repeatedly. The teacher gave him a colouring sheet with an orange, and gave him an orange crayon, also taking this opportunity to teach him ORANGE, since he calls every fruit under the sky APPLE. When he got home, he was so excited and wanted to show everyone. Since his daddy got home late that evening, and did not managed to see his drawing, early the next morning, he banged on our door and when hubby opened the door for him, he shoved his masterpiece onto his daddy's face, saying, "Daddy... see... draw... orange..." and he was very very proud.



After his afternoon naps, he has also learned to tidy up his nap place by putting away his blanket and pillow. Which is a total miracle for someone who loves to make a mess!

And he has also become more talkative, and likes to repeat everything we say, like an echo. No sentences yet, but certainly getting there.

The outdoor activities give him plenty of opportunity to exercise and burn off his energy. This morning I saw the teachers preparing a huge inflatable pool, which I think Shen Liang will enjoy.

He certainly has a good time in school, because I've spied on him quite a lot during the past week. However, he gets worked up like a drama queen when he discovered us. One thing is for sure, he can't get his way all the time in school, because he needs to share, he needs to take turns at certain things, there is discipline and since he is the youngest fellow there, he got bullied a lot by the big guys, which I feel is necessary, as I don't want him to grow up in an over protective environment.

Everytime we take Shen Liang to the playground, we have a difficult time leaving. He will kick up a fuss, scream, cry, do almost anything to prolong his time there. But the other day, when I went to fetch Shen Liang, I was told the children are spending time at the playground. When I spied on him, I found that, when the teacher said, "Alright children, time to go back, lets everyone get in line." Automatically, all the other three children got in line, and Shen Liang followed without fuss. The kid at the front held the teacher's hand as she guide them back, and Shen Liang, at the end of the line, held the other teacher's hand. All these happened in less than three minutes. I am very surprised how disciplined my child has become.

Overall, I think this school is good for him, and I am very glad.

Something 'inspirational'

It's the middle of the week, and my day started rather gloomily. So here's something 'inspirational'.

And he is off!

Yesterday was the first day of holiday play school for Shen Liang. With everything ready, we headed off. Reaching the school, a teacher was there to greet us. In order to encourage independance, the teacher urged Shen Liang to carry his own bag, take off his shoes and bring them to the slot allocated for him with his name on it, all by himself. Very quickly, Shen Liang headed off to the play area. Looks like we have no reason to be anxious. I then went off to work.

At around 10am, I went to peak, ya ya ya, looks like mummy is the anxious one. Anyway, at that time, they had all finished breakfast and went into classrooms for enrichment exercises. When I was peaking through the window of the door, I found Shen Liang seated at the table with the other children, drawing. A teacher was guiding him. He is the only 2YO there, hence he joins the 3YO children. There are four of them in the class, supervised by two teachers.

I was there at tea time yesterday, and the teacher told me he had done very well for the first day of school. Although he still doesn't mingle much with the other children, he doesn't make a fuss either. During meals, he followed the other children into the mini cafeteria, lined up for his food, polished down everything on the plate. During tea time, he even asked for seconds, ha-ha-ha... Only that he was rather upset when he woke up from his nap, which I think is his most vulnerable moment, and what more waking up at a place foreign to him. But after a teacher carried and comfort him, and to their surprise, for not more than three minutes, he was back to his jolly self, running off to the play area again.

I took him home after tea. He was very talkative in the car, though I have no idea what he was talking about, but I guess he must be telling me his exciting day at school. Overall, I am very pleased.