'Talking Back'

Kendrick made an interesting comment today which kind of marks the beginning of 'talking back' or in chinese it's what we call 'ding zhui' :P

Dear was running through some flash-cards with Kendrick and at one point, our little boy correctly said that the fruit on the card was a 'papaya'. The next card showed strawberries but Kendrick's mind was actually still on the previous card but he said the word wrongly the second time. He mentioned 'popoya'. As I heard that, I corrected him to say 'it's papaya'. It was also at this point that Dear then told Kendrick the card he was holding was actually 'strawberries'. Now, our little boy was a little confused by why I had just said "papaya" when his father said it was "strawberries". So guess what Kendrick said.....this was his reply in exact words to his father: "Mummy 'shuo' papaya" (which translates to Mummy had just said it was papaya). Dear and I laughed out loud at his comment! Kendrick was actually 'talking back' to his father to tell him that I had just said the card was showing something else!

Anyway, Kendrick's ever so talkative and cute in front of us and our family members. We've really experienced so many classic moments and they were so heartwarming. Every day's a surprise during this phase of Kendrick's growth :)

Here are some shots we took recently at a friend's wedding dinner :)

Kendrick making a 'funny pose'

Kendrick at 22 months

I'm kind of losing track of the new things that Kendrick does every month. Ha Ha..All I can say is, I'm really thankful that he is growing up healthy and fine so far. Kendrick, thank you for being in our lives for 22 months now...you've been a wonderful gift from God!

In any case, here's some updates on his development:

• The last check, he's about 12kg now. As for height, can't really be sure but I think he's about 87cm...
  
• Kendrick continues to make attempts to speak more sentences like "I want to xxxxx", depending on what he wanted. It could be to eat apple or go up, or come down or play or press the lift, etc. Only problem with his sentence is, he falls into this habit of saying "Eeee want to" or "You want to" instead of "I want to". Have tried to correct him many times but he always forgets! Really hope that this will improve with time. This is also the phase where he does get confused in sentences between "you" and "me"
  
• He in fact understands a lot of concepts that we don't quite remember how and when we taught him. He also knows how to replace original subjects in sentence/songs with something else or someone else. At times when Dear and I talk between ourselves, Kendrick is actually listening in on our conversation and pick up certain things that we talked about. To quote an example, I was mentioning about the wet weather to Dear and Kendrick started singing "Rain rain go away"!
  
• Kendrick has shown us that he can love us back too and he will be very loving. He has said "I love you" to us many times at night before sleeping and that would involve hugging and kissing at times. He's really so sweet!
• He's loves to climb up and down a lot now. By this I mean climbing on top of our bodies so that he can get onto the sofa, climbing up and down stairs..and even climbing under and through gaps between our legs and the floor
• He loves listening to the Mickey Mouse clubhouse theme song and ending song. In fact, getting a little bit too much into TV...he likes to watch the Playhouse Disney channel at his grandparents home
  
• Of course, there are the negative points too. Kendrick continues having his tantrum throwing times and nowadays, he seems to be more insistent on wanting certain things. When he is upset, he has even shown us his displeasure by banging objects on the table or the floor. We try our best to discipline him and hope that he understands.
  
• I know I started this kind of late, but I actually realised that he can now eat harder/crunchier fruits like apple and pear in small bite size pieces rather than grating it
  

Finally, some photo updates:

Bought this little school bag for Kendrick to use when he starts attending playgroup

It's his favourite Mickey Mouse!

At a recent hair-cutting session again

Getting quite pro already, just that this time Kendrick gets rather uncomfortable with the hair that drops in front of him. He can't wait to sweep them off!

After hair cut, looking cool!

Playing happily on our bed at night

Playgroup Trial Class

I've been contemplating whether to enroll Kendrick in playgroups to get him to interact with other children. Being the only young kid in the family so far (since both Dear and my family side don't have any other young kids around), Kendrick has been able to interact with adults well but not so with children his age. In fact, he is kind of shy and more introverted especially in bigger groups. So anyway, I've been searching around for possible playgroup locations near my home. I've even went to check out those playgroups that are held at RCs. No doubt it's quite cheap at $130 - $150 per month, but the one which is near our home, seems quite dark and the class quite rowdy. The teachers also seem very 'chinese' educated.

Anyway, I finally chanced upon this newly set up playgroup (daily from 9am - 11am) which came into operation at Bishan since August 2009. The place is called Totsville Montessori Centre. The pictures seemed presentable enough so I called and they offered a free trial session. So off we went and overall, I guess I quite like the environment for being clean and bright. In addition, the class is small at the moment, so I think it may be better to let Kendrick try out in a smaller group before considering anything bigger. Of course, not everything I observed is ideal, but I guess you can't have the best of everything. As long as it's overall acceptable, I think it should be ok. One more concern I had was that it's Montessori style. I'm not sure if this method is good, but since it's merely a playgroup, I thought why not? Let them learn through playing might be good for a start. Finally, I also worry about Kendrick falling sick more often, once he starts playgroup, but I can only pray that he will be strong!

Anyway, there are still some issues I'm working out at the moment, but ideally, we hope to let Kendrick start a month's playgroup in November before they break for the school holidays. If we can't make it for November, then possibly next year. Hopefully he will be able to adapt!

Kendrick tries out scooping beans from one bowl to another. He could actually do it quite well at first! Then later he purposely poured some beans out. The little girl nearest to him seemed to look at Kendrick quite a bit. Ha Ha..

During the 'circle' time or Music and Movement segment, Kendrick ran off quite a few times as he's not used to all these. Anyway, here's once instance when the teacher says hold hands with a partner. It's the little girl again! The picture is blur, but still thought it's kinda cute to see Kendrick looking shy...

When it was reading time, Kendrick actually plonked himself on the teacher's lap, just like how he does at home with us! Haha..thought that was quite funny...

A bit more playing time. Kendrick actually wanted to explore all the toys more and was not used to the structure yet.

Snack time! All the little toddlers sit at the table to have their snacks

Kendrick eats the little piece of bread & cheese that Mummy made for him :) Glad that he ate so well by himself!

Kendrick falls sick

Kendrick fell sick last Thursday. It started out with mild fever in the morning when he woke up. I had this feeling he might have caught a cold/flu and his breathing seemed strange the night before. Indeed, it resulted in cough and phlegm after a day of fever. Took him to the doctor and fortunately this time round, his fever did not fluctuate as badly as the previous round. The only thing that remains is the phlegm which he is unable to spit out. Felt kinda sad for him whenever he coughed and got worried about wanting to vomit and yet not wanting to vomit out.

Anyway, as at now, he seems to be on the road to recovery, just pray that he will fully recover fast!!

KL Weekend (9 - 11 Oct 2009)

We headed to KL for a short weekend trip from 9 - 11 Oct and that marked the the second time that Kendrick sat in a plane. Since the flight time was only 40 minutes, he was pretty well-behaved and things went quite well. Upon arriving in KL International Airport, we took the airport express train to KL Central where we hailed a cab to our hotel.

We spent a little bit more on our accommodation this time round but really enjoyed the comfort of the Orchid suite room in Park Royal KL. Anyway, this trip was mainly just a shopping and eating trip, so we achieved that and even managed to squeeze in time to bring Kendrick swimming in the mornings after breakfast. It was also an interesting time where Kendrick seemed to say a lot more sentences and even things that make sense. Once instance, he was playing on the bed by himself and he stood up holding his 2 bolsters. He then said "Are you ready Chou Chou? 1, 2, 3!" Then he threw his bolsters onto the bed! I guess that was just his way of playing!

Generally, Kendrick behaved quite well throughout this trip, except for the last morning where he suddenly refused to swim and cried! Really wonder what happened to him as he was happily enjoying himself in the pool the day before. Nevertheless, I did enjoy our trip to KL, especially our stay in the hotel :P

Here's some photo highlights of our trip:

On board the flight to KL

Taking the train from the Airport to KL Central

Family shot in our hotel room

Family shot again...haha..

Kendrick and Papa bathing in the long bath! Kendrick enjoyed playing with the water

Breakfast at the hotel. Kendrick gets to eat eggs and waffle!

Taking a swim

Is that Kendrick swimming??

Mummy appears behind Kendrick who is now on the deeper side of the pool

It was going to be Deepavali the following weekend, so in hotels and in malls, they had a lot of this decoration that you see behind us

Excuse me, are you a model?

This was Kendrick still sleeping in the morning...

Kendrick at 21 months

Kendrick is now 21 months old. He's growing day by day and lately, he seems taller to me. However when I measure his height, he has not hit 90cm yet I think. But he should be around 87cm or so. Here's some updates on his development...

• Kendrick understands a lot of things that we tell him or ask him. He has in fact shown us that he can also ask us questions. So far, he has asked the following: "What are you doing?", "Where are we going?", "What happened?", "What's this?", "What's that?", "Boy, where are you?" (when playing with his toys, he actually said that to himself!)
• He has also said other things like "Milk milk very nice", "Bob Builder sleep here", "Mummy sit here", "Little pig go in", "Mummy read to me", "Papa open for me". I guess this are signs that he's making longer sentences that actually make sense.
• In our recent holiday, he also said things which surprised us. For example, he was playing with his bolsters on the bed by himself and said this to himself: "Are you ready Chou Chou? 1, 2, 3", then he threw the bolsters down on the bed!
• Besides English, he's also able to speak and understand some Chinese words as his Grandparents speak that to him daily
  
• He can identify left and right: he knows his left hand, right hand, left leg, right leg
• He knows how to sing songs: "ABC", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, "This Old Man", "Humpty Dumpty", "Jingle Bell", "Happy Birthday"
• He can distinguish "Big" vs "Small" - Big lorry, small lorry, big bolster, small bolster
• He can identify petrol stations "Caltex", "Esso", "SPC", "Shell". In particular, he likes to say "Pump at Shell, shop at Cold Storage" (affected by the radio advertisement!)
• He has improved in recognising colours since the last month. After many times of teaching him, he is almost correct every time in identifying most colours and shapes.
  
• He still enjoys doodling and can draw a round shape and lines. However, I'm still not certain whether he is a right or left handed person. At times he shows more inclination towards being a 'lefty', but at times, he can still revert back to using his right hand to write
• He can be quite shy in his behaviour towards other young children. I guess he has not had enough exposure to young kids around his age. He can adapt well with adults over time, but with younger children around, Kendrick does not know how to react or behave. This is one thing which I hope when he goes to school or some playgroup, things will improve!
  

Well, counting down to your 2 year old birthday! Hopefully you will continue to surprise us in your 2nd year :)

Mid Autumn Festival 2009

For this year's Mid Autumn Festival, we planned to bring Kendrick to Bishan Park for a lantern walk. However, the weather did not hold up well today. It rained in the evening and we ended up hanging around the void deck of our flats after dinner. Many other families brought their kids to this area to play with lanterns and candles too. In a way, we were also sitting around and hoping that the rain would stop. When it finally did, we quickly crossed over to Bishan Park and took a walk just for fun! There were many other families there, all playing with sparklers, lanterns and candles. The atmosphere was kinda nice even though Kendrick probably does not really understand what's going on. Let's hope that next year would be better without any rain!!