Itchy Hands

Our 弟弟 has always had itchy hands since small. His hands cannot hold still, he has to touch or meddle with something. He will turn on the switches he can find. He will shutdown our PC with his itchy hands. He'd turn off the TV and run to turn off the switch. He knows how to turn on my foot massager. He'd mess with the rice cooker buttons and toaster too. Luckily he did not get hurt so far. Got a pretty good spanking from 爸爸 about messing with switches and electrical stuff. I'm glad as it's very dangerous for little children like him to mess with things he doesn't know how to operate properly and safely. He picks out all the paper wrapping from the crayons and makes a mess. Wherever he goes, he'd leave behind a trail of toys, books, stuff. Sometimes he'd irritate 姐姐 by playing with her 家家酒 toys or pretend party or pretend shop and she is hopping mad over it. That's when she'd scream his name and 'Hey!' at him.

He got a scolding from me tonight as he was trying to play with 爸爸's razor while brushing his teeth. After changing his pajamas he meekly trot to the bedroom to sleep.

姐姐 was never like this! The only thing she'd rub between her fingers is her beloved blanket! I regretted not buying similar ones when the blanket is still available, as it had EOL'ed, EOS'ed and extint.

弟弟 is a hoarder! Just look at all the toys he has hoarded in this tiny space near to where he sleeps. Maybe he feels insecure because he is sharing room with 姐姐. I didn't realize that he minded until I saw this piling up. We'll have to see what we can do about it. Both children are also influenced by the Three Little Pigs story and keep building house with the pillows, bolsters, blankets, toys to map their terrotorries. We tried to put a stop to it but bad habits die hard....

Feeding challenge

As 弟弟 is on the small side, I have to try to stuff him up whenever we eat together. Especially after being tormented during hospital stay, he is very whiny and manja, stick to me like baby koala when I'm home. One way that I manage to feed him during dinner is to play Bumblebee from Transformers. Bumblebee has to ring the door bell 'Ding Dong!' then he will open his mouth to take one spoon of dinner. Sometimes he tries to hide his face to pretend he is not 'at home'. When he's bored with Bumblebee, he will request to 'boo' at flowers/plants at the balcony. What a chore to feed this little boy! However he dare not act like this when 爸爸 is feeding him. He picks on me!

Toilet Training

弟弟 had been dry most of the time during the day. He needed to use diaper only for naps/sleep only. After going to nursery, teacher helped to train him to go dry even during naps. He'd have an occasional accident now and then. Nowadays he is more ready and doesn't need diaper for afternoon nap too. He'll wake up and cry, we'll get the hint he needs to wee-wee. Or he'd wee-wee before nap time and that's enough to keep him dry. He still need to use diaper at night, which sometimes he refuse to use. He said, 我长大了啦！

Hope we can help him get rid of the night diaper soon. Thank goodness, we can save on diapers nowadays. Don't have to keep watch out for diaper promotion. Thank you teacher Chan for helping to toilet train 弟弟!

Unlike 姐姐, he doesn't go on the potty. He goes straight on the toilet since ~18 mths.
姐姐 also had started using the toilet since end of last year. So the potty is now retired in the storeroom.

Father's Day craft

A post about Father's Day craft. Our lamp now has become a 'display hanger'.

The poem written behind 姐姐's craft is inspiring. I'm glad we have the technology to keep this memory now! Otherwise, 5 or 10 years later we'd have forgotten what the children did during their precious childhood.

Drawings

姐姐 has always been doodling whenever she is not doing something else.

This one really makes my day :)

Hopefully a few years down the road she can still see these images.

First ballet lesson

I rushed to pickup the children after work so that 姐姐 and I can reach the ballet school in time. The day before we had told her to take proper nap during rest time and eat during tea-break. Dunno why, but she always skip tea break. Traffic jam all the way to the school - we made it just in time. Teacher is already there. Since 姐姐 is quite determined not to drop out, we ordered the practise costume right away. Had to try out the sample and let teacher check. Even though it looks ok on her on first trial, teacher said it's too big at her shoulder and hv to order smaller size leotard :( Shoes also need to order small ones

Wow, the teacher is really very pretty and graceful. I was peeping at the door and saw her teaching the children basic warm-ups which looked very graceful. Some of the children must have been there quite some time as they can really copy teacher's action. Our 姐姐 enjoyed herself thoroughly but is looking like she needs a lot of catching up in the soft and light movement department :P

Then it's role-playing/acting time, and the children need a toy prop. Next week gotta bring her friendly seal along. I'd prefer her to bring a brown teddy bear (not so easy to notice if got dirty), but she insisted on her seal.

Finally the children line-up one-by-one to say goodbye to teacher, and she gave them a cute sticker each. I wonder if the children need to practise anything at home, need to check with teacher next week. She seemed so busy as the next class is already stomping in.

Music class update - Primary1 to Primary2

姐姐 is finishing up Primary 1 book and going on to Primary 2. She is more serious in practising and doing homework than me supervising. Yesterday she said at bedtime "妈妈，今天忘记practise piano!"

Teacher had said during last lesson that all children must practise everyday. So to encourage her, I give her a 'stamp' (or she call 'chop') on the family calendar. She's also pretty happy with getting praises for her playing, and start to practise hands together and play with mezzo piano for the Squirrel's Lullaby from Primary2. Actually I think she is doing OK in her finger works. The only piece lagging is she is not looking at the notes and playing but mostly playing from memory. Well, she will learn... Oh, and singing to tune is another problem. She can sing do-re-mi-fa-so, but she still doesn't really catch the higher notes. But she is ok to recognize do-mi-so, ti-fa-so, so-ti-re chords.

弟弟 is rather jealous that he didn't get to attend music class, so hopefully by next year when he is 3 years old, he will start Music Kids course.

As someone who had been through the strict ABRSM syllabus myself, I am quite happy with JMC. They learn in such an interesting environment, with the colorful books, cute songs (in CD) and DVD. Even though it is more expensive, but it's really a good exposure to music, rhythm, listening. After all, it's the enrichment that matters.

Wedding dinner

Both children accompanied us to 爸爸's friend wedding dinner at a school hall. It's been quite a while since we hv attended wedding dinner together. The couple hired a good decorator and turned the place to look very dreamy. 弟弟 enjoyed the meats very much but 姐姐 as usual stick to her mushroom/veggie preference. The children were very restless before dinner is served, and were asking to 'go outside - 去外面' or go toilet every 15 minutes.

They enjoyed picking up the confetti and throwing them in the air as dinner ends.

Ballet, at last!

I didn't want to go for ballet even as 妈妈 and 爸爸 bring me to watch other girls at the ballet school near our home. Last Saturday, we went to another school to check out. I like the way teacher teach as it is about acting graceful, music and basic exercise, teacher talk about flowers, fairy, colours. So next week I will start my first lesson.

Since I am a shy and quiet girl to the outside world, here is what 妈妈 say to me:

妈妈: You must listen and answer teacher when she ask questions, OK?
姐姐: OK.
妈妈: Must follow teacher, OK?
姐姐: 已经讲ok 了！
妈妈: GRRR!!!

妈妈: So, 你要穿色什麽去 class?
姐姐: Like the other girls la.
妈妈: Ballet 衣服还没有买, 穿裙先，好吗？
姐姐: 好

I already know a bit about First Position as similar to Gymnastic class. But the skipping cannot do properly yet :P

Additional note from 妈妈: Didn't want to push her, but wanted her to have the experience and exposure to various arts. So when she didn't want to continue with recreational gymnastics, we suggested for her to try ballet.

Getting better....

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the antibiotic shots seemed painful to him. The intravenous line seem to have come loose from all his moving around. He quivered in pain sometimes and yet other times seemed ok. Nurse say he is a very brave boy because in this circumstance, it must be painful. Luckily doctor agreed to stop the antibiotic shots.

He was discharged on Thursday. Diagnosis - acute pharyngitis with gingivitis. He still have a whole bunch of medicine to take. I'm at home taking care of him the wholde day on Friday. Watched Primary 1 & 2 DVD and Pocoyo. Took him walk around the apartment late morning. When we're back, it's time for medicine. He was asleep after having some milk. He slept for a few hours. But not very soundly. He kept waking up calling 妈妈, 妈妈! 我要你来! Even go to toilet or just outside also cannot. **Sigh**

He's going back to school next week.