Dylan @ 11 months

Another month has gone by and my baby is 11 months.

This month was spent perfecting what he had learnt. More talking and his speech is definitely more clear.

Knows how to say the following words when he sees the animal
Cat
Dog
Fish
Bird
Tiek (hu tiek for butterfly)

Imitates what we are saying like
“Ger” (big bro)…

To add to waving bye-bye, he also knows how to make the
Gong Xi & Pai-pai sign…

Getting better at walking. Can walk about 2 meters independently. This lil guy is slow & steady guy. He will take him time to balance his weight as he makes each step. You can see him wriggling his toes to balance his weight. He is so unlike his big bro Bryan who used to rush through his steps when he learnt to walk last time. Hence there are less incidences of him bumping into stuff. If Dylan lose his balance, he would normally just plunk his bumbum down to the floor.

Still not eating much. Doesn’t drink much ebm when I am at work and getting him to eat solid is also quite difficult. He feeds healthily when I allow him to latch on. But he is getting older and he needs to take more solids. I am so worried…Don’t know how to get him to eat more. He is also not into finger feeding yet…Can’t wait for him to do that so that he can entertain himself by self feeding when we dine out.

One more month and Dylan will be 1. Soon he will be a toddler instead of a baby. Wow, where had the time gone. I have to start planning his 1 year old birthday.

Bryan’s first concert

This is sooooo backdated!

Bryan had his first school concert in Nov 08 (last year), and it was….HILARIOUS!

Well, for his baby class (18mths – 3 yr) it was actually a dance routine to a funny mandarin song – Chi chuang ker (wake up song). Though he knew all the steps (according to his teacher la), his routine is pretty messed up.

Can u see my boy at the back. I think the teacher placed him there so that there are less chances for him to mess up the others’ routine.

Half the time, he looks blur, as if just copying what the rest did. The other half, he exaggerates what the others did. If the others made one turn, he would be turning, turning, turning, until he lost his balance.

I recorded his dance on video and it was utterly hilarious to see him dance.

Then they had a group singing performance of 3 songs – Edelweiss, Morning Has Broken and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

His performance was better than I expected. I thought that he would cry and refuse to perform when he sees me. He did allright the entire time. No crying / fussing on stage.

At first I thought he did not see me which is why he didn’t cry. But halfway through his dance, he ran out from his position to wave “HI” to me, then ran back and continue dancing.

His stunt actually caused the dance to be momentarily interrupted as it prompted a few other kids to run out to their parents as well.

In fact, it seems like this boy doesn’t want to blend in with the rest. Besides the stunt during the dance, during the song performance, he will stand more to the front than the rest of the kids.

Later there was another performance which was sign language to a mandarin song – Ying Hua Chong (Firefly). He knew the entire routine, but he was not allowed to perform.

Fooling on stage

Why? Because he wants to fool around on stage instead of performing properly. He actually ran back to the stage to perform for that song, but later was asked by his principle to come back down because he was fooling around and influenced the other kids to do the same. His classmate WX wanted to perform with him. But when he was asked to come down, she refused to perform without him. But my poor boy was quite upset that he did not get to perform in that show. He cried and tried to get back to the stage and I had restrain him during that performance. Poor baby.

I enjoyed double performances that day. The official ones on stage and another one downstage – by Bryan & WX. This 2 kiddo imitated whatever the other kids were doing on stage. One of them was a dance using top hat to the Pink Panther song.

They did not have any hat, so they used their Sugus sweet as the prop.

Overall, it was a fun evening for us.

Dear Bryan, though you did not follow 100% of the instructions, mummy is still immensely proud of you. Bravo boy!

Too fast

Now this is one comment neither my husb nor I expected from my son’s school. He is progressing too fast!

Just as I thought, they has started Peter & Jane series for the kids.

Yesterday, when hubb picked up Bryan, one of the teachers asked him if we read P&J to him at home. My husb, as usual is blur-blur one, replied, “Got also not surprised, don have also possible.” He added, “He has a lot of books la.”

Teacher later said, “He is progressing too fast liao. He already finished the whole 1A book.” It is not even 2 weeks after they started school. I know one teacher tested him with 3A book and he was able to read that too.

Actually we don’t have any P&J books at home. But I was planning to borrow the whole set from my friend. Not because I am kiasu, but because I have run out of books to read to him at home. Bryan loves to read before he goes to sleep, and I want to continue that healthy habit.

But my husband told me not to borrow liao, in case he goes too fast for his class. I told him I will ask the teacher for her opinion.

So I called his teacher this morning.

His teacher said that it is ok for me to borrow the books and do some reading with him at home. Though he can read them, he still has short attention span. He will not read the whole book at 1 go. Normally they will break it into a few sessions. A few pages before he starts class in the morning, some before/ after bath, some after he wakes up from nap,..etc. It’s just that they are surprised that he can read all the words in that book.

I asked how many pages are in that book, and she replied, 50++. No one else in his class is that fast. The other fastest student just hit page 40 this morning.

So I asked if it is OK for him to be progressing faster than the rest of the class. She said it is ok, because when they do reading, it is always one-on-one, as each kid progresses at their own rate.

Needless to say, I am extremely proud of Bryan. This is a boy that almost did not speak English 9 months ago. And now he is ahead of his class in reading! Of course, he has lots to catch up in other areas, so keep it up dear Bryan!

P/s: I really need to do something about his “sunshine” hair before CNY…..Haizz keep so long already, still sticking out all over the place.

Look what Bryan did to Dylan!

Bryan was coloring using his magic ink set and look what he did to Dylan!

He decided that Dylan need some coloring as well!

Luckily daddy caught him as soon as he started “coloring” Dylan. Otherwise, donno how Dylan will look like. Sommo this is magic ink on the face. It is not easy to get it out without using soap. I was washing dishes in the kitchen at that time.

I heard daddy scolding Bryan.

Daddy: Look what you did to Dylan! I draw on your face also.
Bryan: No, no. Don’t want already
Daddy: Draw your face, let you go to school and let your friends laugh at you.
Bryan. No, no, I don’t want already.
Daddy: You see Di-di’s face. Not handsome already.
Bryan: Not handsome already lo. Must give to Kor-kor (daddy’s sister) liao lo.

You see la this Ger-ger. Draw the Di-di’s face and then now want to give him away sommo coz he is “not handsome” anymore. We always joked that kor-kor loves didi very much and if he doesn’t treat his didi well, then kor-kor will come to take didi away. Bryan would always cry and say no when we threaten that kor-kor will come.

For the record, Bryan also drew all over his body and hands…especially his hands. He kept running to me in the kitchen and showed me how dirty his hands were and that he NEED to wash his hands liao. You think he really want to wash hand meh? He wants to play water ah!

Stairs master

Dylan’s favourite toy at the moment? The stairs.

He loves climbing up & down the stairs. He loves playing by the stairs. So it seems that either me or husb had to at the stairs all the time also to watch over him.

At first we are a bit worried, but he learnt how to climb down the stairs pretty quick. In fact he’s pretty good and quite careful as well.

Check out the videos below…

Dylan – 10 Months

Delayed post due to the holiday seasons. It seems that I am busier during the holiday seasons compared to working days.

Food

• He is almost eating whatever that we are eating at home unless they are seafood or nuts. I think he loves solid or lumpy food compared to puree. Loves bread, biscuit, scraped apples, chopped prunes. Had mee sua, oat, Nestum

Motor

• This lil guy had started walking! 2 weeks ago, he started to take just 1 or 2 steps. Now he is getting more adventurous – a couple of steps at a time. Sometimes he even attempt to run. Really cannot walk want to run liao.
• Loves the stairs. Will play at the living area, then suddenly he will remember the stairs and start crawling to the dining area. Will climb up & down the stairs. See next post for his down the stairs video. He’s getting pretty good at it.

Vocal
We heard him said

• Fish (aquarium at my mom’s house)
• Cat (pointed to a photo in his book)
• Dog
• Can’t say Bird yet, but when he hears us saying that, he will look for one in the sky.

Others

• Loves music, will sing & dance along to a song he likes
• Has 4 little teeth now. 2 at the top & 2 at the bottom.
• Loves to play with CDs and remote control. Donno what it is with kids. All of them seems to love the remote control. At least both my boys are.

Bryan – 1st School Evaluation Results

Bryan’s school performs a formal evaluation once every 6 months on the students development. During the evaluation, the students are rated 1 – 5. 1 – very poor and 5 – advanced for their age.

They are evaluated on their Social & Emotional skills, Motor skills, Linguistic skills, Reading, Writing etc. The tests and score sheet are designed by the school’s principle and so we are not allowed to have a copy. Instead she schedules a 1 on 1 session with us to go through his evaluation results. The session is supposed to be 1 hour, but since I am so cakap banyak, we ended talking for 2 hours.

Bryan gets mostly 3 (Progressing averagely) for most of the scores. Since I do not have a copy with me, I cannot recall everything. Here’s some of the feedback.

Social & Emotional skills

• Knows how to share his toys
• Says “Thank You” & “Sorry” willingly
• Knows how to help people
• Knows how to play in a group
• Areas of concern (Score = 2): Does not seem to be able to internalize what is right and wrong. He can tell you what is wrong but the problem is he still does it. Eg, he knows he is not supposed to bite his friends…and yet he still bite. He shows remorse when he is caught, but he still does it *pengsan*. This is one area that we need to monitor in the next few months.

Education (Vocab, Writing, Learning)

• Has no problem expressing himself. Whatever that his vocabulary lacks in English, he is able to express them in Mandarin.
• Knows his ABCs (Score of 5)
• Knows his shapes & colors (Score of 5). This includes tertiary colors like Indigo, Mauve, etc.
• Numbers 1- 20
• Writes 1 -9 : Actually this one is a surprise to me cause I never knew he could write. Of course, Audrey said it is not really neat and clear but she is judging him at 3 year old level, which is good enough.
• Actually he is already reading words &short sentences. Audrey’s evaluation did not include reading because to her, that is above her expectations. If he can read, it is a bonus. If he can’t, it is no biggie. She doesn’t expect them to at this age. She knew that he could read because Bryan is able to point out words and read to her when she reads to them.
• In fact, Bryan can scout through the list of contents of his Mother Goose books and points to me the rhymes that he wants me to read. There are 99 rhymes listed on that page! And I certainly have never read that index page to him! *beams proudly*
• Excellent music skills (Score of 5). He is able to listen to a song just once and is able to sing the tune. Got a good sense of rhythm. I have been getting this feedback from his teachers constantly. I definitely will send him to music class when he is ready.

Motor skills

• Actually all are ok. They are judge on their balancing skills, flexibility of their limbs (wrists, ankles,etc), running, jumping, hopping, skipping.
• A little clumsy sometimes. His legs can get “tangled” especially when he gets excited. Walk by himself on flat ground also can fall down.
• Dancing skills a bit out. His movements are a bit awkward. I told Audrey maybe this is hereditary, but definitely not from me la. hahahahahahahaha

One surprising feedback that I received is that Bryan will fare well in our school system. He is an audio & visual learner. And though most of the time, he is very playful and does not pay attention to what the teacher is saying, he still learns and is quite good at it. They taught the 4 year old a song in sign language and Bryan knows how to sign the whole song the very next day. Most of the kids in his class are not able to do that. Problem is he is too playful, and he doesn’t want to do it properly. That is why he did not get to perform the sign language song during his school concert.

However he will not “shine” at his current school group as the learning is focused more on physical skills, handicraft etc. He is definitely not a kinetic learner and shows less interest in this section.

Audrey told me that I will not have any problem with him when it comes to education. And when he starts learning mandarin next year (actually now liao la coz this is a back dated post), he will have no problem too. Only problem is, he may give me shoddy works, but he definitely knows his stuff and will do it.

And Bryan knows how to self soothe. He is able to snap out of his own unhappiness by himself within a short time. This is very important as things will not always be smooth sailing in life. When you hit a bump, you must be able to get over it and move on with life.

And he has very high self worth. He always say, “Bryan is good boy.” Even when he is naughtly la …. But it goes to say that if you are positive and have high self worth, people will like being around you. Audrey added, no matter how cute/ beautiful the child is, if the child is always sad & miserable, nobody will want to be around him/ her.

That is why he is very popular at school – because he is always happy. His classmates, teachers as well as the older children love him, though he is so naughty.