Stage where the kid learns to choose and be independent

Making own decisions
ZQ has learnt to express what he likes and what he doesn't. He has become choosy ... he choses his food, his DVD/VCD, his songs ... except his clothes.

He will normally nod his head when we ask him questions and only when he dun like it, he will shake his head. He also learns how to "Teh" with me ..... saying "Hmmmmmm" (in a teh voice) ... i faintz. Boyz, teh wat.

Being a good eater, he is also not eating properly recently. He loves soup and white rice ... no nutrition at all. We suspected that it was due to the Pork Floss that my MIL had been feeding him. I stopped her and requested she dun give it for every meal - I hope he will eat the dishes rather than just plain rice.

Maid also said recently he stopped drinking in the middle of the nite, I hope this continues. He seems to know that I am concerned ... so perhaps he wants mama not to worry too much about him? * I had been trying to tell him not to wake up at nite for milk. Hee. Such a dear. *This is called consoling onself. Hahaa.

Taking out his own shoes
ZQ is also vv good at taking out his own shoes now. Hiak hiak. Must train them to be independent young. Now he is so expert that he can even bend down to pull out his shoes when he reached home and I am still carrying him. Next, i wan him to learn to put on his shoes.

Washing hands upon returning home
ZQ knows that he has to wash his hands once he returns from outside. He will push the chair to the sink and then climb on top, pour the hand soup and wash his hands like an adult .... but gotta watch him that he dun push it to the window where the grills are not locked and also the risk of falling off if no one is supervising.

Shares his food
Since many months ago, ZQ started to share his snacks with the fanily. He will asked for cereal and then feed us with it. Aye, but sometimes, he will bite half of it and put the other half into my mouth. *Sweet but the thought is yuks.

Double syllabus words.
At the moment, ZQ can only say 1 syllabus words - except for those which are repeated syllabus - mostly chinese words.

For biscuits, he will go "Bi-ba bi-ba"
For Cereals, he will go "C"
For water, he will go "Wor"

ZQ sings the Do Re Mi song (first word only)

Sometimes we run out of ideas of what songs to sing with the kid, so, recently I remembered the Do Re Mi song and i started singing to ZQ. Amazingly, he can remember the Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Di , Do ..... So he will say the first word Do and I sing the sentence then he will continue with the next word, Re ... and so on until Do again. It's quite fun playing and singing with him in this manner. *Will try to post the video - hopefully sometime soon :)

Had also bought him some toys on shapes which I taught he does not know well cos often, when I show him the flash cards on shapes ... he looks disinterested and dun seem to be able to point to the correct shapes. When we got home with the shapes (wooden flat pieces which u place on the wooden board) - hubby started playing with him and next we realised that he actually knows all the shapes! They were just playing a speed game to place the pieces back to the board. And dear ZQ is so funny, he will try to place the pieces in and when he realised that it is at the wrong place (ie Oval shape he was trying to fit into the Circle shape) , he will mumble to himself "No no .... " .. then try another place.

Tried on the ABC ones but he is not too keen cos the pieces are rather small - prob keep it for a while later. Perhaps I can go get the color ones?

Latest update on ZQ

Been a while since I've posted some real updates on ZQ.

I guess he is at this stage where they learn alot of things quite fast. He has started talking but mainly single syllabus words which are repeated. Chinese hence becomes easier to teach at this point. Recently I taught him numbers 1-10 in both mandarin and english. He will repeat the words one by one after me ... of course he cannot pronounce "seven" very well but the other words he can say pretty ok.

Last Sat, we were at a friend's house and there are some steps within the house. ZQ got interested and kept going up and down the steps. On his own accord, he started counting "One, two, three" and I was delighted. Of course there are some other kids of his age - the genius Jayden who is way ahead but well, ZQ is on schedule .. haha. So he kept going up and down the steps repeating One, two , three. Last nite, he actually can count up to ten on his own. We are all happy to see his progress. I guess it doesn;'t matter when but when it happens, it brings joy to the family. He is such a cute little boy.

Now I am waiting for him to count 1-10 in mandarin .. haha.

I have to credit this to the constant repetition through games, interaction sections with him. For recognising things, he is pretty ok but for recognising words, he is not too good. I guess different children learn differently. He is not interested to look at words ... so my words flash cards are still lying around untouched.

He has grown much ... it feels that he is almost 90cm ... din get to measure him but he really looks big for his age. Still at 13.5kg, he is eating very well. Attempted to cut his middle of the nite feed of 240ml but he is still not willing to give it up

ZQ @ Nov 2007

Marathon Charity Swim from Batam to Singapore - 11 Nov

A hectic weekend just passed. Hubby and a group of other ten swimmers - 11 swimmers swam on 11/11/2007 from Batam to Singapore. A total of 20 km was the original distance but in the end they swam more as the tides were pretty strong. When they were nearing SAF Yatch Club, they were swept by the strong currents towards the restricted zone and even the navy was alerted and on a few occassions, it triggered the siren. Finally it took them 7-8 hours to complete the swim.

It was definitely not an ordinary achievement. Who would dream of swimming such a distance and imagine from Batam! I had taken the boat ride to Batam and it is already a long enough journey. Imagine to swim that distance? On top of that, the kind of huge gigantic sea transports they have to be mindful of - the tankers, the ships, speedboats, sails, surfs .... and not to imagine the strong currents from Indonesia waters to International waters to Singapore. What about those sea creatures which might pose a danger to them? The jelly fishes, sea snakes .... and the unnatural items - plastic bags, oil spills, seaweeds, floating stuffs. One really takes a lot of courage to simply even imagine doing that swim - not to say, complete it.

Seeing them eventually complete the course one by one was a relieve and admiration. I have problem completing 1 km, not to say 20 times of that or more. I am happy that things went really well on Sun and no mishap occurred. The success of this swim means more of such in the future and more work for me ..... (having body aches and legs are aching big time), however, if it means to raise more funds to help the kids in Singapore, what is my little effort compared to the swimmers who braved the sea to swim that distance despite all the odds to do their bit for charity.