Dear Sweet Pea,
My little cheeky monkey! You melted my heart earlier this month by telling me, "I love you". And on 16 November, you said these 3 beautiful words to Daddy for the first time. Wasn't it funny that I jotted down the date when you said these endearing words to Daddy but it completely slipped my mind to write it down when you whispered these words to me? When you are in love with someone, you keep a look out for them more than you would for yourself.
On 17 Nov, we changed you from nappy to training pants. It felt like a great milestone as you started showing slight interest in toileting. Coincidentally, the teachers in school told us it was about time to think about potty training. To speak the truth, I thought the act of wanting to sit on a little potty was a pretty intuitive reaction. I mean at one stage, one would naturally feel uncomfortable walking around with a bag of liquid or unpleasant solids in the pants, isn't it. We decided to resist the urge to "train" you and let nature take its course.
On 9 Nov, we took away the straw cup and switched it to the Hegen drinking cup. You tend to spit out the food that you did not like although nowadays you could eat quite a lot and frequently requested for more servings. Your favourite drink is water, much to my delight! That happened to be mummy's favourite beverage too! You could also napped longer than before all the way from 12.45pm to 2.45pm.
Ball pits were my pet peeves. I found them to be filled with germs, fallen hair and all sort of dirt. However, much to my dismay, the ball pit was the very thing you loved at every indoor playground. I cringed as I saw you jumped around in it fearlessly, dived into the balls and "swam" around in it. You loved to sing and dance. This was apparent from a very young age as you would take every opportunity to move your body. I took a short video of you spinning and hustling outside the hair salon while waiting for your turn.
We had a review with the teachers in school on your progress in school. The teachers thought you were very well-behaved in school. I assumed that was because you have exhausted all your naughty antics at home. You were able to answer any question that was posed to you in school. You also relished in being a tattletale! You would go to the teacher to complain if a particular kid in class was not listening attentively! You liked to sit and observe your friend and if he was not drinking his water properly you would alert the teacher. You were starting to turn into a little bossy terror.
In school, you were very willing to come forward to assist if the teacher asked for help. You have developed a huge interest in phonics and learning different sounds and words. You enjoyed hands-on activities during language learning and looked bored if the lesson did not include any. You always wanted to do a lot of activities. Daddy always teased Mummy that I liked to "do things" every weekend. My weekends always have to be jam-packed with fun activities and adventures! I wondered which parent you took after!
Counting was not your forte yet but shouting out loud to make your opinion known was your top priority now. You would start counting the given objects and go back to starting from 1 again halfway through. You were able to count from 1 to 5 now. As to whether you truly understood the concept of counting, I was sure this would take longer.
Mummy was very proud of you that you were able to speak Mandarin well and fluently. You could communicate to your Chinese teacher on what you liked to eat and in short complete sentences narrated your visit to the Pororo park with Mummy. You were able to pronounce simple nouns like owls or explaining the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. You were really doing well for your age group.
Due to the lack of social interaction outside of the classroom, you often wanted to get your classmates attention. Your way of expressing this was to snatch the other kids' toys away to provoke them. Then, you would keep the toys behind your back. We were told that you craved more interaction with other children but did not know how to do it. Despite your love for colouring, we realized we needed to work on your tripod grip. You could identify more colours now compared to a few months ago. However, when the teachers tested you on colours, you would say the wrong colour on purpose.
29 Nov was the first time you looked like you truly enjoyed shower time ever since we introduced the need to wash your hair. You had always been afraid of getting water into your eyes. Now, you would close your eyes and listen to our instructions to look up so we could shower your hair with ease.
On 28 Nov, I told you I was really tired and you gently told me there was no need to feed you and you would do it yourself. Tears welled up in my eyes.
Is this the start of you becoming a caring child?
XOXO,
Mummy and Daddy
P.s. On 6 Dec, we set off to London to look for Uncle James and Aunt Agnes!
