Starting Signing

DS is almost 6 months old.

I think it's still a little early to start signing with her, but we started today anyway.

Let's see how this one takes to it.

It worked really well with DN. :)

Fiona the Fluke Fish

When DN draws scribbles, I always ask him to draw a fish because they're one of his favourite animals. "Fish" was one of the first signs he learnt and he just loves looking at them. Today, I asked him to draw a fish again and look what he did! What are the odds? Wah, must buy 4D!

The first thing PF said was, "Hmm... must ask him to draw 4 numbers next time."

-_-

Can you see Fiona the Fluke Fish?

18 months old

At 18 months, his personality, likes, dislikes, abilities and quirks are quite obvious, and I think I have a fairly good idea what kind of person he is.

Personality

• Short-tempered : He flys off the handle when he doesn't get what he wants. (alamak)
  
• Friendly : Unless he's just woken up from a nap or due for one, he can be very friendly with people. He'll smile and wave at strangers and if he knows you a bit better, he'll interact and play with you.
• Independent : He doesn't need us around all the time. At playgroups, he's usually off playing on his own or with other kids.
• Gung Ho : He's game to try anything, even a dark and narrow tunnel at the Julia Gabriel playground.
  
• Observant : He can spot things that we can't! (like the narrow & dark tunnel which was under a Little Tykes pirate ship)

Conclusion : If there's an Amazing Race for toddlers, DN will join it. He'll eat grubs and leap off playground slides, but if he doesn't win, you'd better siam! (leave quickly to escape from the exploding toddler and his tantrum)

Likes

• Eating : DN really likes eating. Even after his own dinner, he'll want to join us at the dinner table and eat, instead of play with his toys. During the day, we often see him dragging his high chair to the dining table and pointing at us to put him in it.
  
• Grapes & Kueh Belanda : He will give up his parents for these.
  
• Bathtime Peekaboo : One of his 2 favourite books now. He likes lifting the flaps and discovering the duck, penguin, fish etc. I like this book too because it's very baby friendly - board book, huge flaps, huge pictures & few words.
  
• Goodnight Moon : His other favourite. For the longest time, he couldn't sit through 4 pages of this book. Now, he'll sit and listen from beginning to end. These are the only 2 books he'll read in their entirety.
• Slides : Short ones, tall ones, straight ones, curly ones.
  

Conclusion : When he's older, I can just see all three of us hanging out at a cafe having tea/coffee/hot chocolate and cake and reading books. Lovely! I can't wait!

Dislikes

• Wiping his face : He likes washing his hands with soap, but hates us wiping his face. Go figure.
• Finger Paints : Strangely, although he doesn't like the feel of paint on his hands, he has no qualms smearing my carefully-cooked-on-the-stove-for-2-hours porridge on the table.
• Sitting in the stroller : I'm like, "Do you know how much this monster stroller cost us? SIT DOWN!"
• Sleeping through the night : -_-
• Bittergourd : Can't blame the guy, but trust the chinese to eat, and like, this awful vegetable.

Conclusion : A nightmare for him would be being chased by a giant face towel.

Abilities

• Signing : He's building up his signing vocabulary and recently added the signs for - carrot, umbrella, stand up (he made this one up himself), grumpy, grapes and vegetable. He's also more precise with his signs now. When signing 'more', he now uses his fingertips instead of his knuckles.
• Language (1) : He's definitely physically dominant and not linguistically dominant. He can only say "mama", "mum-mum" and "up", but he understands 95% of what we say. Like if he overhears us talking about going home, he'll go get his shoes and start waving bye to everyone, even though we're still sitting on the couch. He's been doing this since he was about 14 months old.
  
• Language (2 ) : He understands 95% of what we say, in both English and Mandarin. Woah nelly. I think his understanding of Mandarin is better than mine.
• Physical Development : He started walking at 12 months and it's been a whirlwind journey since. It wasn't long before he started running (13 mths) and walking backwards (15 mths). He cannot sit still. I think that's why he's not fat even though he eats so much.
  

Conclusion : In primary school, his whole world will crash when it's raining and he cannot have PE.

Quirks

• Eating medicine : He eats his paracetamol medicine and shows us the 'good' sign! And he'll open his mouth and receive other medicine willingly. Amazing. I love it!
• Fish Lover : He likes fishes so much that whenever he hears running water, or sees a pond, he'll run over to see if there are fishes in it. One of the first few signs he learnt was 'fish'.
  
• Guttural Sounds : None of us can do it, but DN can make this strange guttural sound from deep inside his throat. He started doing this just before he turned one, whenever he saw a dog or cat (like a growl!). Now he also makes this sound when we ask him to call 'gong gong' or 'gu gu'. It really does sound like it, haha.
  
• Smiling : At about 14 months, DN finally understood the concept of "smiling for the camera". Because he's seen me shove my phone-camera in his face so often, he started smiling as he held my phone-camera and pointed it at his face. He also accomodates when we bark at him to "smile", and he gives us his trademark squinted-eyes-scrunched-up-nose smile.
  

Conclusion : Strange taste buds? Vain pot?


Feb 2007


Feb 2008

Price tag, name tag, DN's been tagged!

I've seen these on other people's blogs and have secretly harboured the hope that I'd get tagged too, hee. Ling tagged me so here goes... 5 things! (I'm tagging on DN's behalf.)

A. Found in my Room

1. A big mess (Mom & Dad keep trying to get me to pack all my toys, but I have more important things to do... like overturning this bucket and all its contents onto the floor.)
2. Diapers - NTUC tape diapers (for day), Nepia pull-ups (for nights) & Nepia tape diapers.
3. A Flensted Dog Mobile
4. My little library of books - The Eric Carle ones are my favourites.
5. Dust! :(

B. I have always wanted to...

1. Climb up the stairs myself (but Mom won't let me)
2. Put my hand in the fish tank and play with the fish (but Mom won't let me)
3. Get out of my stroller the minute I'm put in (but Mom won't let me)
4. Pull Mom's earrings because they're so sparkly and dangly and be-yoo-ti-ful (but Mom won't let me)
5. Pee & poop in the potty Mom, but sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Time and tide waits for no potty!

C. Found in my (diaper) bag

1. Munchkin suction bowl
2. Pigeon fork and spoon set
3. My snacks! Sometimes Mom stews fruit for me, most times it's crackers.
4. Water bottle
5. Diapers

D. Found in my (mommy's) wallet

1. 2 pictures of Mom, Dad and me :)
2. Discount cards that she hardly uses but daren't throw away coz "you never know!"
3. Bobby pins
4. Lip balm
5. (not enough) Money

E. I'm currently into...

1. Opening and closing drawers and taking things out and in
2. Begging Mom and Dad for bites of their food
3. Drawing on the IKEA chalk board
4. Signing "tree", "leaf" and "baby"
5. Giving kisses without being asked!

5 people I'm tagging

1. My Aunt Dawn
2. My Uncle Josh
3. Mom's best friend, Aunty Li Yen, who only wants to be known as ZHE ZHE Li Yen
4. Mom's forum friend, Michelle
5. Mom's forum friend, Shirlyn

Ready, set, GO!

Here fishy-fishy-fishy!

We have a little pond at the back with a little elephant fountain and some fish. Our track record for keeping fish (alive) hasn't been that hot. They've all died on us! We keep going to the aquarium to buy new fishes for the pond, wait sorry, RETIREMENT HOME FOR FISH. Seriously, my pond is like a hospice home for guppies and swordtails, a place for them to live out the rest of their lives. (usually a week, sob sob...)

I dropped by the aquarium to get a new batch of guppies. I think they are going to live long and prosperous lives because we've decided to move the pond outside. I hope the sun will do them some good. (Good luck guppies! May you live long! PLEASE!)

DN loves looking at fish. Whenever we're out and he sees a pond or hears running water, he'll starting signing "fish" and will crane his neck and try to find the fish. When we're at the fish section at the supermarket, he will sign "fish" frantically and stare at the fish. I wonder if he's wondering why they're not moving. :(


The new batch of guppies. Only $1.50 for the lot. We always buy arowana- fodder... the fish that are fish food for other fish!





DN probably gave all the fish migraines when he was trying to fit the bag into the jar. Look at them... they're all a blur!

I am 14 months old!

DN turned 14 months old yesterday and bringing him out is getting easier and easier. PF finished work early so we decided to have dinner at Shimbashi Soba at Paragon. I brought DN's porridge out in a thermos and we reached the restaurant at about 6.30pm. Perfect timing! While waiting for our food (Cold Soba & Salmon Sashimi for PF; Soba in Soup with Seaweed & Mushroom Tempura for me), I fed DN his porridge.

He sat nicely in the high chair and flirted with all the waitresses. Great! (It kept him occupied while I ate.) When he was done with his porridge, he started eyeing my noodles, and going "MUM-MUM-MUM-MUM" at the top of his voice. Really. People were giving us funny looks.


Here he is, "beo-ing" my noodles and signing "please".













We always ask him if he has anymore in his mouth before we feed him more food. And he obliges with a big "ahhhhh..."!





Hey! There's still a little bit of noodle left!













We went to ELC (Early Learning Centre) after dinner (thanks for the idea, Ling!) because they have lotsa toys out for kids to play with. DN gravitated towards the household equipment. (Should I be worried???) Here he is, walking backwards (his new trick) with the vacuum cleaner.

What's the sign for...?

Fish? Dog? More? Bye-bye? Papa? Sleep? Milk? Banana? Star? Please? Eat? Wash hands? "I love you"? Watching "The Wheels Of The Bus" for the umpteenth time?

(Yes, there's a sign for that! DN created it - waving his hands in circles like, er, the wheels on the bus... it's really a no-brainer!)

To date, that's the list of signs he has learnt. The very first sign he picked up was "banana". Not "Mum" or "Dad", but the sign for a yellow fruit favoured by monkeys.

And to date, the only word he will say is "mum-mum". Not "mum-mum-MOTHER" but "mum-mum-FOOD".

Can you see the trend? It's quite clear what his priorities are. And it's not me or PF! That's gratitude for you, humph. -_-

But teaching him signing has turned out to be a good move because DN is able to communicate with us with those basic, but vital, signs. He can tell us when he wants more food (his favourite sign... go figure!), he signs "please" whenever he wants something (I'm mighty pleased he picked that up), he lets us know when he's tired ("sleep") and when he wants milk. (which is a somewhat embarrassing sign when you're out in public - you open and close your fist, like milking a cow)

The Signing Time DVDs teach American Sign Language and most of the signs are very logical and common sense. For example, to sign "fish", you mimic the movement of a fish in water. "Dog" is patting the side of your thigh, like you would when calling a dog. To sign "banana", you raise your left index finger and with your right index finger, you stroke it down your left. It looks like you're peeling a banana!

Some signs are just weird. "Father" is opening your right hand and tapping your forehead with your thumb. "Mother" is doing the same, but this time tapping your chin with your thumb. DN learnt how to sign "Papa" but refuses to sign "Mummy". Humph.

There are so many more signs we want to teach DN --> thank you, mummy, cat, cracker, mummy, water, drink, bread, mummy, ouch, sorry, shoes, grandpa, grandma, bird and of course, mummy.

Thanks again, Carla, for passing us the 1st 2 Signing Time DVDs! ;)

Counting Down

Same time last year I was 39 weeks pregnant and stressing out E, my roommate (at work). She convinced herself that I was going to go into labour in the office and she would have to catch the baby. Every few days, she would check her phone and make sure that PF's mobile number was still in her phone. Funny E!

Well, it's 4 more days to DN's first birthday. I think it's time to update all on what the little peanut can do! A good friend, C, passed DN a copy of "Baby Signing Time". After some "brain-washing" (LOL), DN can now sign

• milk
• banana
• wash hands
• (i want) more
  

He has also taught us one sign - the sign for "eat". In American Sign Language, you bring your fingers to your mouth to sign "eat". It was the first sign we wanted to teach DN, but he never picked it up. We would be barking "eat! eat! eat!" and jabbing our mouths with our fingers, but he would just ignore us. Until one day, he started opening and closing his mouth whenever we barked "eat!" at him. And he's been doing that ever since. DN's very own sign language. :D

Besides these signs, DN has a few other tricks up his sleeve. On command, he can

• give us a kiss
• wave bye-bye
• give a flying kiss (it started out as a flying lick, eww)
• hug his bear when we ask him to "sayang Brownie"
  
• show us where's his nose and ears
• show us where're mummy's & daddy's noses and ears
  
• mimic making a phonecall when we ask him to "da tian hua"
• clap his hands when we sing "If You're Happy And You Know It"
• open and close his fingers when we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars" (in English and Mandarin... I think his Mandarin is better than mine!)
• lie down when we ask him to rest
• point his index finger up when we ask him how old he is (a very useful party trick for his birthday lunch on Sunday!)
  

Golly. He sounds like a circus seal.