4 months of playgroup

Lele attended Chinese playgroup from July to Nov. Initially, I received many feedbacks from the teacher that Lele's attention span is quite short. Though I understood that lele's inability to sit still to receive knowledge was probably due to his inquisitive, curious and observant nature, I couldn't help worrying.

Will he outgrow his restlessness?

Is he hyperactive (Daniel convinced me that he is far from hyperactive behaviour... phew...)?

Besides including a few quiet activities (such as writing, colouring and puzzles of which he is very fond), I also set prayers for his and his teacher's high life state during lesson. Knowing Lele's curious nature, I chanted that he will be so curious about whatever the teacher is going to teach that he'll pay attention to her without getting restless. This specific prayer worked. Even without my asking, the teacher commented that Lele has been much more attentive in class. Some weeks, I'll receive good comments for 3 consecutive days. This is a far cry from initially, when he will only pay attention for 30mins at most and become quite restless. In the last lesson, he was even able to complete a worksheet by matching animals to their homes with a pencil, by listening to clues given by teacher.

Though I have chanted for Lele's development all this while, it was only when I began to set specific prayers and take specific action did I see very quick results. Before chanting, I used to worry about things even as I take action. But through this benefit, I can feel that as long as there is specific prayer + specific action, we have nothing to fear.

As a mother whose greatest responsibility is her children's wellbeing, I found this very reassuring.

Jungle play

Papa bought a 28-piece floor puzzle for me. I was pretty excited to see such big puzzle pieces. Though I did not complete the puzzle in the morning with papa, I manage to complete the entire puzzle by myself the 2nd time round, after a good nap. Mama suggested inviting my soft friends for a jungle walk, and I had lots of fun!

choco love affair

Lele likes sweet things and absolutely loves chocolate. Above is him devouring an entire choco muesli bar after 150ml milk for his teabreak. He requested for the muesli bar after waking from nap, and I made a deal with him. He can only have the bar after finishing his milk. Though reluctant, Lele finished his milk. I had thought he would not be able to finish an entire bar given a full stomach of milk. But he surprised me...

springcleaning

Under the iniative of Daniel, we springcleaned the storeroom this afternoon. Look what I found... photo collage of Lele during his first few months of life before 1 year old... This was given to Lele by his dearest playmate shushu, a day before he was due to fly off to Australia for studies. He made the photo collage as Lele's first year present. I showed Lele the collage after his birthday party, which shushu could not attend because he was already in Aus, but he wasn't too interested. Not wanting to leave it around in case he destroys shushu's hard work, I rewrapped it and kept it in the bedroom. Later it was moved to the storeroom due to dust accumulation. I had wanted to bring it out later to show lele, when he is older.

How time flies! Now dear lele is 2.5 years old, and his dear shushu has completed his 2 year studies also! I showed Lele the collage and asked who the picture was.
He replied,

"Baby!"

and I told him that the baby is him when he was a baby. His face showed a mixture of amusement and confusion... haha.... I left it at his bedside bookshelf and we looked at it again before bedtime. This time, he asked,

"Where is the picture of Lele when he is big boy?"

I replied,

"Right here."

And gave him a big hug, saying,

"Last time when Lele was a baby, mama loved him very much. Now Lele is a big boy, mama loves him very much still."

I also explained to him that the collage was done by shushu, that it took shushu a long long time to do, but he did it because he loves him very much:)

Thanks, Gary!

What a beach!

22 Nov was beach day for me. Papa, mama and me met up with waigong (maternal grandpa), waipo (maternal grandma), dajiu (mama's big bro) and dajiumu (his wife) to go to the beach! Kudos to mama for making that suggestion! I literally played my pants off (more juicy details coming up...) Dajiu and dajiumu had fun playing with my sand molds, building sand castles and stuff, while I had twice as much fun destroying them with my power rake *evil laughter*. Waipo was reallie cool. She roughed it out with me playing with sand and water while waigong just chilled out on a mat high and dry. She even brought in a coconut that came floating in with the tide. I had fun piling sand on it and was sad when the waves decided to lull it back to the sea. I chased after it without realising I was wading deeper and deeper into the water. Luckily waipo caught hold of me in time. Bye, coconut... Hope to c u again the next time I visit...

On the way to the beach, I came across a small baby excavator under a tree. This real truck is much better than any toy truck mama got me. I spent quite a while meddling with the gears. 2 passerbys couldn't help smiling at us. They must be jealous :p Topmost picture is dajiu and me. Dajiu is so tall, isn't he?

See that on my hand? Don't be deceived by its sweetie pink colour. It is actually my weapon on destruction. I use it to destroy whatever sand creations dajiu and dajiumu built with my sand molds.

Even though papa just returned from a 2-day scouts camp the very afternoon, he still accompanied us on this beach trip and played with me. Mama had suggested that he stay home to rest while she and me will go to the beach with the others, but papa told mama that he had promised to bring me to the beach and therefore must keep his promise. What a great papa I have!

That's waigong chilling in the background while I busy myself as a sand transporter using my teeny shovel. Hard work but loving it: )

Waipo feeding me some biscuits brought from Japan by her neighbour. Yummy!

Waipo also bought a watergun for me. We had some fun squirting. Unfortunately, the watergun couldn't stand papa's rough handling and "died"...

Me trying to chase after my friend, Mr. CocoNut, but was held back by waipo.

I appear to be working with dajiumu and waipo, but actually I'm just waiting for a chance to use my pink rake (see it lying there?) keekeekee...

Shortly after playing with water and sand, my entire pants got drenched. About 1 hour into playing, I needed to pee. Mama told me to pee in the sea (hey, it ryhmes!) and I insisted on removing the pants. After my pee, I refused to put the wet pants back on and played bottomless for anothe halfhour. Mama is especially amused to see me playing bottomless in public and not caring at all. See, I am so self-conscious of my body that even at home, i will not change in the living room unless nobody is around. If I need a change of clothes, I will almost always insist on doing it only in my room. If anybody (besides the one changing me) comes in and cry shame, I will kick a fuss and quickly cover the vital parts with blanket or towel or korkorbear. That's how self-conscious I am.

Mama thinks the reason why I could be so nonchalent about showing my bum in public is because I was having too much fun to care. Besides, my totally soaked pants must have felt so horrible on my bare bum that I rather play without it.

ALOHA!

After more than 3 months absence, I'm finally back! Above is me riding on a ... ... oh right... excavator. I have just arrived at Pasir Ris Park and was making my way to the beach when I spotted this poor little excavator abandoned under a tree. I just had to get on. Under usual circumstances when I'm with mama, she will talk me out of going up by explaining to me that I have to ask permission from the constuction worker before I can ride his truck, and if he is not there, I cannot go up the truck on my own.

But that day I was surrounded by allies (namely, wai4gong1, wai4po2, da4jiu4 and da4jiu4mu3), so mama didn't bother wasting her breath and even took a few cool shots of me! Don't I look like Bob The Builder?

One month of playgroup

Time flies. Lele has completed a month of playgroup. We are happie with his progress so far. Lele has learnt many things from the playgroup. Below are some of the more significant things.

1) Attention span is better
2) Renewed interest at holding writing materials to colour, write, paste and draw.
3) Can speak in complete, fluent and correct mandarin sentences.
4) Likes quiet play such as puzzles.
5) Can recite 2 tang poems and sing many mandarin songs.