My lil chatter box

My lil toddler has grasp quite a fair bit of new vocab especially with his cousin sister (a year older) staying over. It's through the "interaction" between them that my boy picked up those wholesome words i.e. "pink bear-bear", "daddy drives car", "go out walk-walk" etc.
It's only few days that my boy has learned so much from his min-min jie-jie (cousin sister) and he even knows the different between himself as a boy and his cousin sister as a girl. Each time when asked whether if he is a boy or girl, he will say "boy" although at times he tends to be cheeky in his reply. From his cousin too, he learned about the name of animals i.e. donkey, monkey, dolphin, etc.
I am really amaze by those vocabulary that he has mastered in such short period especially since he turned 2-years. It's really cute to hear him chatter chat all days...and we could just smile or laugh over his conversation.

Building with blocks

Building with blocks requires the manipulative skills in young children that involve largely the use of their hands and body coordination especially the fine motor skills. Other than that it also reflects the child's creativity and imagination. I would say that blocks is and should be the first toys to give a toddler as the start of learning. There are so much learning involve in building with blocks - colours, shapes, sizes etc.
Stacking is the very basic and first skill when the young toddler begins to explore the blocks. Then followed by creativity building with blocks and finally the details. I enjoy watching young toddlers at play especially when they are so focus in their "work".
Recently as I was accompanying Maximus in his play (blocks), lo and behold I realised that he was putting and building in creativity. He was so focus and he totally ignored his surrounding. Instead of building vertically up (stacking up), he built it horizontally and stack them to make his building double-storey.
Quickly I grabbed my camera and get the few shots before he could destroy them (that's what he normally did after building).

Day-time Potty Trainned!

Finally, Maximus is potty trained during the day time even when he is taking his nap in the afternoon! It's a great achievement for him and a relief to our pocket $$$...
During his visit to his cousin's house, he wore pants without diaper and he was able to inform us when he wanted to pee. Although he uses the "baby-language" saying "shh-shh", at least it's a mean of communication.

Now, we can bring him out (short outing) without having to wear diaper. He will tell us that he wants to go to the toilet when he passes one.

Maximus - "Daddy & mummy are proud of your achievement. Well done!"

Learning through hands-on experiences is the BEST

After the 6th Nov, my lil boy turned two. His has progress from talking in 2-words phrase to now 3 and 4-words phrase. He is such a chatter-box and chat-chatter from the hour he wakes up till he sleeps...sometimes he even talk in his sleep!

He surprised me one night saying "cat eik bown" and I was trying so hard to figure out what he meant. He wasn't able to show us and he kept repeating the phrase till I realised that he was actually saying "cat eats bone" - pelat!

He has successfully proven that he learns through the hands-on experiences. It was before he turns two, that I brought him out to feed the cat. I told him to give the bone to the cat. Low and behold he remembers the experience - at that time he was only able to say "cat" "bone" and "eat" in all jumble-up order. Now, he has begun to string every word into a phrase.

I am always in support of learning through hands-on experiences and through play. And it is indeed a good method for young children to pick up and learn fast.

Another example - Usually during brushing teeth session, I will have to ask him to spit out the water. Now, he is able to tell me and show me the action of spitting out water. But my lil-mischievous one will spit out water anytime whenever he is drinking.

I would say that young children learn best through actions (hands-on) and that will get them to be independent in their learning too.

1-yr old going to 2-yrs old

I recalled a year ago, we celebrated our lil-one's 1st birthday...A year later, we are celebrating his 2nd birthday. Our son has the blessed 2-years and we are thankful for him. A full 2 years of joy and laughter, tears and sweat keep us going on. Our world is revolved around Maximus.
At one, we were looking forward for him to walk, run and climb. Now at two, we are surprised by his speech developement...a chatty lil-one.
Seeing him growing and developing well in his milestones brings us joy and mostly reminding me of how Great is my God! It has been a great 2-years and we will and shall expect more years ahead.


Left: 1-yr old birthday celebration

Right - the recent 2-yrs old. It's filled with fun when he is able to blow the candles.

Featuring Kids at Play

My Child Magazine has a page to feature kids at play... and for the September 2010 edition, Maximus's picture is selected in the page.

It's not about winning a prize or anything, but it's just feeling of being selected to be published in the magazine. I was so excited when I noticed the photo after few times looking at the magazine. (Didn't expect will be featured in the magazine).

What I did was just to send the photo of my boy playing to the magazine...as simple as that!

The enlarged picture (cropped out for the tiny picture) of Maximus playing sand at the PD beach.

It's just fun play...

Play is just part and parcel of the toddlers' livelihood and part of their "work". As I was doing the report of my action research regarding "Parent's perception towards learning through play", I realised that my boy has been engaging into so many fun play just because of the opportunities given by us as parents. Yes, our perception as a parents in accepting Play into our children's life is important. "Play is indeed the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child soul" (quoted from Friedrich Froebel - Father of Modern Kindergarten). Play is the child soul... this is what brings a child to be lively, fun, sociable, and ALIVE!

Play has been introduced since a child is born! And as I look through all the photos of my son playing, they give me joy... and it's just fun play in a child. It's also their RIGHTS to play! (stated in the Convention on the Rights for a child by UNICEF).
So, our lil ones play...because it's just FUN Play.

Here are some fun play pictures of my boy playing since a baby...

Soup for the Lil Boy

This is not the story on Soup for the Soul or anything... This is about how my lil boy enjoys soup and being just the typical Chinese boy! He always want soup after meal and sometimes he will just have soup... Grandma's soup must be tasty!
It's fun watching how he slurps and drink his soup in a mouth full...smiling over the satisfaction of having his cousins to accompany him and mostly the way he sits on the stool! It's really a sight!

Pretend Play / Dramatic Play

Pretend Play / Dramatic play is part and parcel of child's play and it encourage creative thinking. Toddlers normally will mimic and imitate adults through pretend play. My young toddler enjoys his time having pretend play with his soft toys and his pizza set.

Each picture shows a sequence of the pretend play event:

#1: Getting ready the props - Pingu the penguin and the Pizza set




#2: Feeding Pingu some sauce




#3: Said "Pingu lak-lak" (Pingu feels spicy) and feed Pingu with water.



#4: Next, Maximus cut the pizza slices.


#5: Then he took one slice and feed it to Pingu.



That's how much I enjoy watching pretend playing with his toys.

Getting ready for potty training

Potty training should only be introduced to toddler when he/she is ready. It is normal to start introducing the potty to toddler around 18 months - 36 months. But it should be done gently, with patient and not stressful for both parents and toddler. There are few signs when a toddler shows readiness for potty training. These signs are:

1. Dislike or feeling uncomfortable in dirty diaper and insisting to be changed
   
2. Able to stay dry for at least 2 hours
3. Have regular bowel and ask for the potty
4. Able to tell when wants to urine
5. Able to tell (verbal or facial expression) when wants to pass urine or motion

When a toddler is ready for potty training, then parents should try to avoid wearing the diaper for a long duration. Start introducing brief or potty training pants.
For Maximus, he started his potty training on bowel motion as early as he reaches 12 months. He dislike the dirty feeling and will be anxious when he wants to have his bowel. Now he is learning to be trained to pass urine in the potty. At home, we will get him to wear a pair of shorts without diaper and remind him to pass urine at every 45mins - an hour (Initially started with every 30mins).
When we go out for a short outing e.g. for breakfast, for a walk at the mall or grocery shopping, we will get him to wear his brief and pants. Maximus likes his briefs bought by his elder aunt (ah-yee).
We hope that Maximus will be completely ready to urine or pass bowel motion independently when he is around 30months. There will be greater challenge with potty training especially at night.

Top-left: Front-view
Bottom left: Back-view
Right: Getting ready for bed-time. Wore the underwear when we went out for a short walk in Leisure mall

My lil Bossy Boy

My lil boy is turning 2-years in 2 months time! Before even being a 2-years old toddler, 12-years old adolescent or a 20-years old young adult, my lil boy is a lil Bossy Boy!
Besides being a perfectionist (just like mummy), he always want to boss everyone around. With his ability to speak short phrases without any proper grammar in using the preposition and conjunction he will just shoot his instructions. Being the lil Bossy boy, he addresses himself as "Max" and started commenting, pin-pointing and requesting everyone especially us!
He uses phrases such as:

1. Max clothes
2. Mummy-milk-milk car (Meaning - He wants mummy to feed him milk while holding to his car).
   
3. Uh-Oh! No more lights!
4. Uh-Oh! Close (Meaning - we have to close the drawer or cupboard or the door properly after opening them).
5. On lights
6. Yes, stairs (Meaning - Yes, I want to go downstairs /upstairs).
7. Yes, Pi-Pi (Meaning - Yes, I want to watch Pingu).
8. Take! Take! Take! (While pointing at anything he wants and request us to take it for him)
   

Obviously if any of his instructions are not being full-filled, he will definitely:

1. Scream!
2. Whine
3. Throw tantrum by lying down on the floor and roll around

It's not easy to control his tantrum throwing although we tried ignore, distract or substitute. Sometimes he will give-in but most of the time he is just being our Lil Bossy Boy!

No more baby

It was the 6th of September when I went for the O&G check up after a week of spotting and leakage. The nurse in Klinik Ibu dan Anak advised me to get a scan from the O&G. I have never felt so anxious while waiting and since I could sense that something is not right about this pregnancy, I felt even more anxious. I can only pray...
When I was called into the Gynecologist room, I told the whole situation to her and up to the examination bed to get my scan. The 1st scan (abdomen scan) failed to trace the fetus's heartbeat and it was confirmed by the 2nd scan through the virginal. My heart dropped upon hearing this and I was ALONE! The gynecologist said I need to do a D&C immediately to avoid any infection since the fetus has died in 7 weeks old although through her scan it showed 8th week.
I cried when I called hubby but what needed to be done, need to be done fast. I signed the consent letter and then admitted.
The process was fast! It happened just like a blink of eyes - when I was conscious, it was DONE. My baby has gone! I was too tired to think or be sad about it... what I could do is just talked about the future plan with hubby as i lay down in the ward. And my mind was thinking about my lil Maximus. I miss him so much at the moment and wanted to hold him close in my arms.
It's just a feeling of loosing something precious and I guess Maximus is the one whom I hold preciously. But God is good...and He is good all the time.
Through this time of trial, I cling unto Him for His Mighty strength. I found strength in Him... thus I was able to control my emotion. When I went home, I has the comfort of Maximus, hubby and also my mother. It's a feeling for warm and secure.
Late at night, we had our bed-time bonding with Maximus. Low and behold, he uttered the word "No more baby'" and it surprised us! I guess my lil guy here know what has happened. He was aware or somehow in his spirit he was connected to us.
Well... I was relief when he uttered those words and it seems a confirmation to me that I have to accept this fact. So i surrender it to God and let him plan for our next one.

Maximus and HFMD

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a fairly common viral illness in children. (HFMD is not the same as foot-and-mouth disease, also called hoof-and-mouth disease, which affects animals.)
HFMD most often occurs in preschoolers, although adults and children of any age can get it. Most adults have developed antibodies against it from previous exposure. HFMD most often shows up in the summer and fall.
HFMD can be caused by any of a number of viruses, most commonly the coxsackie virus.
Toddler contracts HFMD, will first have a mild fever. A day or two after the fever starts, your toddler will develop painful sores in his mouth — on his tongue, gums, or the inside of his cheeks. This will likely make him irritable. Your child may also develop a rash on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet, and maybe his buttocks. The rash, which isn't itchy, starts out as small, flat, red dots that may turn into bumps or blisters.

(Facts taken from babycentre.com)

Based on the above facts, I firstly discover that Maximus is infected with HFM on 28 August during late afternoon towards evening. However, he got all the symptoms (fever, spots, ulcers) all at the same time. So instead of going for our family dinner, we rushed to the nearest hospital.
Maximus was confirmed having HFMD by the pediatrician but was told that he didn't need to be admitted. However since the administration has been done, we stayed on.

He was super duper cranky and it's really pitiful to see him suffers in pain especially with the ulcers in his mouth - the worst is on the tip of his tongue. He was being quarantined in a single room. The pediatrician and nurses are nice and helpful (of course...we paid a deposit of RM 2k).

At home, Maximus was really sticky to us like glue and always wanted to be carried. He can't eat much but we have to give him more fluid. I have to record down the quantity of fluid he took so that he won't be dehydrated.

Although he is still active - playing well especially with his cousins, he still isn't himself because of the ulcers pain. Sometimes he gets very cranky and cries a lot. It's not easy for us and it really takes a lot of patient to fulfill his needs.

I pray every night for God's healing and speedy recovery. I am sure this happened for a good reason. We were supposed to go for a picnic at the Ulu Yam waterfall on Sunday 29 August but I think God has HIS plan to protect us from the recent disease.

1st Master piece

Finally I bought a toddler-size (fat) crayon that suitable for toddler's fine motor skill. So my lil artist is into colouring. This is his 1st master piece... Showing it with pride!

Maximus started by choosing yellow crayon and coloured the aeroplane. Then he changed to green.
Finally, he presented his art work!

From being timid to an enjoyable experience

Any new experiences for toddlers seem to be a 1st adventure. Some will feel timid but some are bold to try even it's their 1st. All these are just the part and parcel of growing up from an infant to a toddler now.
Maximus has different experiences in his toddler-hood i.e. from taking the bus ride to the train ride. And from having an adventure on the highland, waterfall and now to the beach.
We first brought him to the beach just in conjunction with the Kinderland Seremban 2 Sports Day event. Since I have to be there for work purposes, I decided to give him a good exposure to the beach. Of course I have my hubby along so that I can also focus on my work.
When we were there, Maximus was so afraid to go down bare-footed on the sandy beach. So I decided to put him on the mat and let him explore the sand with his hands. Soon after the hands-on experiences, slowly he moved to step on the sand. Wah-lah...he begun to move around freely on the sandy beach with other children.
It was a wonderful and enjoyable experience for him. Although he is still not ready to face the wave at the sea, I am sure he will be more bold to explore one day. It's an adventure for him.

Talking in short phrases

As toddler reaches 2 years old, the language development begins to develop fast...and slowly a toddler will start to talk in a complete sentence i.e. I want milk.
The language development of a young toddler begins with 1 syllabus word - milk, daddy, mummy, car etc. Then 2 syllabus word - flower, open, apple, etc. From the 2 syllabus words, toddler will start to combine those vocab into 2 or more phrase i.e. big car, daddy's car, here pain etc.
Maximus's language development is in the milestone as he reaches 2 years old soon (in Nov). He begins to explore his vocab and combine words into short phrase. It's really cute and overwhelming to see how he uses his vocab in his daily conversation. I would said that I have totally lost count of the number of vocab that he has grasped.
He uses different type of vocab in his daily conversation and mostly in short phrases (2 or more words). I enjoy having a conversation with him especially when I read a book or tell a story to him. He is able to interact well... in his tiny voice, I found it a great achievement in his language development. Some phrases sounded silly yet cute and some are used in a very smart ways.
Here are some of the short phrases that Maximus are using:

1. Big truck (or car, bus)
2. Daddy's big car
3. Mummy's bag
4. Po-po's house
5. Big house
6. Kor-kor (or anyone in the family) pain-pain
   
7. Mummy scold (or anyone in the family)
8. No more thing
   
9. No more flower (or any nouns of object)
10. Daddy / mummy work
11. More milk
    

These are few of the short phrases that he uses in his daily conversation. Some silly phrases are:

1. Two milk (especially when he is being breast-fed)
   
2. No more Doh-no (as referring to McDonalds)
3. Bum-bum pain-pain (giving excuses not to wear diaper)

Slowly and surely, he will begin to progress to speaking in simple short sentences. And I am sure by 2 he won't stop talking... mostly the twos are the chatter-box because they start to "parrot" or imitate any adults' conversation.

Still Got?

Maximus is picking up language fast. I would say that he learns a new word daily and is able to apply them. He learn his language from everyone in the family - Chinese from grandma, English from us as well as his cousin.
My concern is having Maximus picking up the wrong words and also using Bad English especially from his cousins. Since his cousins are all Chinese Education and not exposed to good command of English, they tend to translate words from Chinese to English.
A very good example is "Still Got". I tried to figure out where did Maximus learn that word and soon realised that it was from his cousins... and to my horror it was a direct translated word from Chinese "hai-you"
In fact, I tried correcting Maximus from using the wrong word but then I stopped because I found it very cute when he says "still got". There are few context where he applies that word into his speech:

1. During sticker time - when he pasted the stickers, he said "still got" and wanting more stickers.
   
2. Switching on the lights - he pointed to the light and said "light" as to ask me to switch on the light. Then he pointed to another light and said "still got".
3. Snack time - he enjoys his favourite snack / biscuits and says "still got" when he finishes his 1st bite.
   
4. Playing with his toy cars - he pushes the car to knock on each other. Grab another and say "still got".
   
5. Applying oilmen - when I apply some oilmen on the mosquitoes bites mark, he points at other marks and say "still got."

Soon I learn to accept that word but I hope that as he grow up he will learn the right word. I do not wish that he speak bad English because it doesn't serve the purpose. I am sure he will learn from it.

Let's Go to the Zoo...

This is a outdated post - too busy and forgot to write my post last month.

June 24,th was our 3rd year wedding anniversary. We took Maximus for a trip to Melaka.

On June 25th we visited Melaka Zoo after so many years...

It was Maximus's first experience learning about the wild animals. I have not expose him with the wild animals. He only know the domestic animals i.e dog, cat and bird.

It was a fun but tiring time because we have to walk and carry Maximus at a certain point.

Top-left: Maximus posing at the zoo sign-board.

Top-middle: Checking out some animals with daddy.

Top-right: The giant-turtle replica.

Bottom-left: The noisy birds

Bottom-right: Cheeky Maximus with the giraffes.

Ferris-Wheels

It was just a month or two ago when we wanted to give Maximus an experience in the Ferris-wheels. It was in Melaka when we went to the Pirate-Park near the Melaka River. After we bought the tickets, Maximus refused to get into the Ferris-wheel and indicated that he was scared.

Now, after the incident I tried to convince him again to go for a ride in the Ferris-wheels. This time it was in Sunway Pyramid. To our surprise, he was so excited over the ride and can't wait to get into the Ferris-wheel when we were queuing up.

It was a good, fun and memorable experience for Maximus and us. In fact, we laughed when we realised that Maximus fell asleep on daddy's shoulders after the last round. The people around and the staff in-charged too laugh or smile when we carried Maximus out asleep. The staff commented that it was a fun ride that our lil-one fell asleep.

Another encounter, Maximus was charged RM 5 for the ride because he is more than 90cm tall when measured. Although I told the staff that he is not even 2-years old, the staff responded that they based on the height measurement and not the age. Darn!

Ride in the Komuter Train

Maximus has his first experience in the train...but it's not the train as what he knows from the cartoon character "Thomas". He was confused because the komuter train doesn't make the "choo-choo" sound as what I taught him from the book. I have to explain to him the difference by telling him that this train is running on electricity and show him the cables.
When the komuter train passed by he waved good-bye. However, when we went into the komuter train, he was terrified with the crowd since it was so crowded during weekends.

At the end of the journey, he can tell us that he likes the train ride.

Left: Maximus sitting on the waiting area for the Komuter to arrive.

Right :Maximus and I in the Komuter. We stood near the door and only holding to the pole in the crowded Komuter.

Imitating the sound of animals

Maximus associated dog as "Woof! Woof!" and he will call every dog from the sound it made. But when he sees a cat, he will say "cat". Now, Maximus is imitating the sound of a pig. Although he may not say the animal as "pig", he can make the sound of pig.

He imitated the sound from his toy... check out the video.

My Chinese Speaking lil fellow

Since Maximus is being taken care by his grandma during weekdays (8:30am - 7:00pm) which he spends most time with her, he is learning his Chinese language (Mandarin). His grandma usually speaks Mandarin to him and he will pick up the simple vocab from her.
Now, he uses more Chinese vocab to communicate with us compare to English. But Ive no complain because this can be a basic and good exposure to him at later age when he attends school. We are able to teach him English or BM but not Mandarin since both of us are not Chinese-educated so it's very much depending on his grandma.
His Mandarin vocab are:

1. chi-ge (this)
2. na-ge (that)
3. pah-pah (scared)
4. pao-pao (carry)
   

These 4 lil words care being applied most in his daily conversation with us. For example: When mummy asked him what does he want, he replies chi-ge (pointing to the thing that he wanted). Or when he is scared of something, he will pat his chest and say "pah-pah".
So my lil boy is able to understand the Chinese language. This is a good sign for us to decide - Chinese-medium or Kebangan school (BM-Eng medium).
My personal opinion, I dont like Chinese-medium school because there is too much of drilling in the learning. Anyway, it's a long journey before we actually decide. We are still enjoying listening to our lil boy speaking different languages for different contexts. Cute-little voice yet very chatty especially when he is in the mood!

Maximus's use of adjective

What is an adjective?
In English grammar, an adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying and quantifying the words. An adjective usually precede the noun or the pronoun which is modifies.
So, any adjective used in a noun will change / modify the noun. Example: a car - a big car which explain that "big" is the adjective to describe the car.
Ok, so Maximus at 19 months can use 2 words to describe a thing other than saying the word in 2 syllabus. It's an acheivement! Since car is his favourite, he has also made the assimilation to modify the use of car into an adjective word - big car. This used of adjective also apply to any object that he describes as big! Eventhough he is able to recognise a bus, or a truck he will still describe them as "big car". It's pretty amazing to see an Early childhoood theory (by Jean Piaget on Assimilation and accomodation) turn into real life for my lil toddler.
Now, I can fully see those theories in Early childhood that I have learnt back in my 1st degree come into life...through my lil toddler. It's indeed an acheivement for both of us.

Enjoying his soup

Since Maximus has grasped the skill to eat on his own, he enjoys eating together with us independently whether eating out or at home.

He likes soup and able to scoop the soup with a spoon and feed himself.

We enjoy watching him eating and most of the time it will be ended messy... but satisfied! He is also able to sit longer at the table - sometimes until the end of the meal.

My Shy lil dancer

I caught Maximus dancing to the Bob the Builder MTV (Opening song). As soon as he noticed that I was recording, he stopped dancing and gave me the shy smile. He won't even want to dance when everyone is around him or being asked to dance for his daddy or cousins. Guess he is just a shy lil boy...

Eating skills

When I read this blogger's blog - The Best Parenting Blog 2009 about Toddler Eating: Breakfast Adventure, I decided to write about my Maximus's eating skills since 18 months.

I totally agree with what she wrote on the tips on toddlers eating. As she mentioned, the most important point is to make it FUN! Every eating opportunity that we have with Maximus will be filled with fun time. He will learn about the name of the food that he is eating and of course, he gets the chance to cut those food and dip it into his favourite tomato ketchup. He loves dipping since being introduced the dipping concept to him by his daddy.

After 18 months, Maximus also has pick up the skill to feed himself using the spoon. He won't miss the target! He is able to coordinate his hand-eye as he scoop his food with the spoon and put it into his mouth.

As we eat along with him, he learns to even scoop food from other plates and explore every taste. Sometimes he wants to imitate us by using both the spoon and fork. Of course this will be a big challenge since has not grasp the skill. So I will get him to alternate the spoon and the fork. He also understand the concept of using the chopsticks - they go in pair! So he will make sure that he get hold of chopsticks in pair but it's too risky to use chopsticks. I will always take that away from him and replace it with his spoon.
At this age, it's more relaxing when we dine out. Maximus can sit independently either on 2 chairs stacked up or in the baby-chair while feeding himself. Although it's messy, I won't stop him to explore and eat by himself. That's why I always have my hankie, wet-tissue and a pair of clothes to change (in-case).
Parents should encourage and allow toddlers at this age to explore and eat by themself. It's a good learning experience and also to teach them about independence and responsibility. Put aside the issue of being messy, allowing toddlers to eat by themselves is the best learning experiences. It covers a lot of areas of development i.e. the fine-motor skill (physical development), the cognitive development etc. So, give a try!

Maximus and his cousins

The house is filled with boys! Boys everywhere...!

Maximus being the youngest enjoys the company of his cousin-brothers... since baby he was surrounded by his cousin-brothers. I still can recall his first official word - "kor-kor" as to relate to his favourite cousin brother.

Every schooling-day, Maximus will wait for his cousins to be back from school. He will welcome them back home by waiting at the door! Then get them to play with him. He prefers being in the company of his cousins compared to with us! But seeing him having so much fun with his cousins just bring us the joy.

This photo was taken to show that Maximus is surrounded with his "kor-kor" and how he can behave in such cheeky manner around them. He will behave in such playful manners too when he is around his cousins. Sometimes get overly active - laughing, turning and running around! Well, I have to at watch just to make sure that he doesn't hurt himself then.

I like this photo although not everyone is in the photo (Maximus's favourite kor-kor not there) but just by looking at Maximus's expression makes me smile!

Daddy's Birthday Celebration

Maximus was so excited having to receive and open the box of cake... He opened it with a "wow"! Then when I lilted the candles and get him to bring it to his daddy, he felt such proud of being assign with the responsibility.

He enjoyed the blowing of the candles although mostly are just blowing the saliva. Then having to cut the cake with his daddy was fun... instead of daddy holding the knife he insisted to hold independently. Most of the time his eyes are at the cake!

I am sure when he turns 2, he will be excited over his birthday celebration. Since he is now familiar with birthday cake, presents and the birthday song hopefully by then he will learn to sing-along too.

The terrible TWOs Syndrome

Is the terrible twos syndrome beginning to show now? The terrible twos is characterized by toddlers being negative about most things and often saying 'no', the terrible twos may also find your toddler having frequent mood changes and temper tantrums. Maximus is not two yet but I read that the terrible twos will happen anytime when toddlers reach the second years or after the first year birthday.
Maximus is showing a lot of his terrible Twos signs after he turns 18 months. The very first sign was shaking his head to say "no" or disapprove to anything! It's not easy to handle such issues because he can hardly express himself in words yet. He has only limited vocab at this moment. Thus, we have to give him varieties until he nods to it.
Another syndrome is the high-pitch scream! He screams to anything and everything that is unpleasant and not at his approval! Most of the time to avoid continuous screaming we have to distract him or get him to show us what he wanted.
The mood changes and temper tantrums is also the top to the list! He can be happily playing in the minute but the next he will start to throw his toys without much reasons. IGNORE! We will ignore him at all times but mostly he will get what he wanted at the end because it will turn out to be another high-pitch screaming.
It's not an easy-beasy task when toddlers reach the big Twos! I am just hoping for the best although nothing of the knowledge in the early childhood theories that I could apply work! It's the hardest part... it's the real-life scenario.
However, Maximus has reach to a acceptable level of understanding instruction and reasoning. If he is in his good mood, he will be able to accept instructions and reasons. Otherwise, it's just empty talks and he will go his ways...
I tried the spare the rod, spoil the child technique too but he just couldn't understand spanking and worst I don't want him to pick up the habit to spake others with the rod. Anyway, I hope that patience and endurance will show better results.
Our best tool is to IGNORE when it get out of hands / beyond control or to DISTRACT when he can't get what he wanted. Hope that God will provide us with better wisdom in raising our toddler from the terrible Twos syndrome.

Sweet dream and Night Terrors / Nightmares

Sweet dreams are always we hope for especially for our young toddlers. But not every night will be a sweet dream sleeps. Sometimes, our young toddlers will be disturbed with night terrors or nightmares. From my findings, night terrors is different from nightmares. Toddlers will remember nightmares but not night terrors. A toddler will appear awake in a night terrors but the fact is asleep.

I enjoy watching Maximus sleeps. Most of the time it will be a sweet, peaceful sleep. I will not stop kissing him gently on his cheek whilst he is sleeping. In an occasion when he had sweet dream, he giggles and mumbled in his sleep. It sounded so cute... Since I am a light sleeper, I will be awake over such little noise he made and watch him.

However, during a night terrors (I will describe it as night terrors as it's not awaken dream) he will scream, hit and cried. At the end of it he sobbed in his sleep. It's really pitiful to see him but what I can do is just to hug him and gently rub his back to assure him it's safe and fine. By hugging him, I can give him the warm and comfort and soon the night terrors stopped. Sometimes, I will nurse him too.

A not so drastic night terrors will be consider as talking in the sleep or playing in the sleep. Maximus has this experience too. It is always related to over-exhaustion or too much of fun and stimulation to the brain during the day activity. Hence the brain is still active during the night. One of the fun night terrors was when Maximus appeared to be awaken and said "bus" whilst pointing to "it". I thought he was awake and wanted to play, but it was in the middle of the night! But then it was just a fun night terrors and he went back to sleep.

It's such a mystical way seeing toddlers having night terrors. Sometimes they even open their eyes but the fact is that they are not awake! So from experience the best method is a HUG to calm them.

Reading references:

http://www.toddlerbedtimetips.com/night-terrors-in-toddlers.html

http://www.mychildhealth.net/how-to-calm-children-after-nightmare.html

http://www.the-parenting-magazine.com/tag/bedtime/

Pool Picnic

1st May, and I did it! We have a picnic...it's the best pool picnic for a start. Although it was really exhausting preparing the food (all by myself), I do enjoy watching everyone enjoy them. I prepared some sushi, egg sandwiches, sausages rolls and tortilla tuna wrap. Before I can even get my hands on some of the food...they were all gone! And I was a little disappointed because the children (my niece and nephews) ate the wrong container of sushi. They had the allergy free sushi made for Rachel and Lil J.
It was a nice day after all. Will plan for another one again...maybe on Wesak Day holiday then. Anyone care to join?

Matching skills

Matching skill is part of the logical skills in the cognitive development in the children's developmental milestone. I am rather thrilled with how the toddlers learn and pick up this skill. There is the Montessori ways, the traditional ways, and the DAP ways. These are just how the skills being instilled into the toddlers.

My personal approach will be having my toddler to explore these skills - the matching, sorting, group etc. naturally. I will just give him the awareness and through much exploration, I am sure my toddler will soon grasp the skills.

Here I have posted the final result of Maximus's matching skill (match the transportation). I started with giving him a picture magnet of a transport and then he will place it on the picture of the same transport in the book. We do this every night in a playing manner. But yesterday night, he decided to pick his own picture magnet and turn the pages to match the picture. Quickly I grabbed my recording device (mobile phone) and record the moment.

I was thrilled with excitement and proud of his achievement! Check it out...

Swimming experience - before and after 1-year-old

I recall that on May 2009 (Mother's day), we gave Maximus his 1st experience in the pool. He was 6 months old back then. On 23rd April 2010, we brought Maximus again into the pool. And this time he is already 1 year and 5 months old.
I can see a load of differences... It's a progress! But the similarity was he enjoys himself at no matter how old he is! Swimming is just baby's nature. They are a swimmer by nature - I guess!
It was such fun. Now, Maximus is already more than 3 feet tall. He is able to walk in the baby pool and is independent maneuvering around the baby pool. He is not as afraid as before. In addition, he can identify the real fun being in the adult pool! He wants to be in the adult pool... Guess it's also another children nature that they love the adult pool.
Here are the differences from the photos:

Being more independent in the pool patrol float. He is more aware of the environment now as compare to when he was 6-mths old. He was more interested chewing / tasting the steering on the float.

Able to kick and try to swim independently with the float comparing to before where he needs a lot of supervision and guidance.

Maximus is able to walk in the baby pool without much help. Previously he will cling tightly on us.

I am so proud that every day my lil son grows and learn new things. I have to thank God for HIS wonderful gift and also continue to thank HIM for his faithfulness in taking great care of this precious gift that HE has given.
I am a proud mother seeing my lil Maximus achieving new skills and learning new things in his environment. But mostly I am proud that I have God (Jesus) with me to lead this journey.
Glory to Jesus...

Having fun in the pool

It is the 2nd experience since the last year in May. Maximus gained more confidence maneuver around in the pool. With daddy swimming with him, it's just like double happiness.

Greenery Versus Concrete Jungle

I have been longing to expose Maximus into the greens but most of the time we are stuck in the concrete jungle!!! The Malls!!! It's really sad seeing a lot of children hanging around and strolling around with parents in the malls... where are all the adventures and exploration into the greens?

I always want to plan for a picnic... but my intention is always being discouraged by hubby or friends! It's always about the mosquitoes, and the heat! All I wanted is to have fun with Maximus out there in the field. Some of the places that I always have in mind to have a family picnic are:

1. Lake Garden
2. Waterfall
3. Recreation park / forest
4. Seaside / beach
5. Playground
6. Field

These are the few greeneries that are available in KL areas now... what else to expect with such development! The concrete jungle is moving into our next generation life... so before these are all gone, I do wish to have picnic in the green with Maximus.

So, who is up for a picnic? I must be determine to have it soon...once I started it I am sure it will be easier to organise the next one.

Greenery here we come...!

Second Language

Most children have at least familiar with 2 languages - English as the international language and their mother's tongue i.e. Mandarin, Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia or any dialects. At the toddler's age, most of them are quick to absorb and pick-up language especially those that are familiar to them. Once they are given much exposure on the language, they will be able to use the language to the right context.

Maximus begins to pick up his language pretty-well too. Besides being able to understand English language, he also starts to grasp the Mandarin language too. He is able to apply the vocab in the right context too.

He know 3 vocab in Mandarin - zhi ge (this), na ge (that) and wo de (mine). Most of the time when he pointed at things that he wanted he will use the zhi ge or na ge depending on where the thing is. And each time when I told him not to play with my things, as I said "This is mummy-de." He will reply, "Wo-de" and put the thing on his chest showing that he own it.

I am sure that as he grows, he will have the opportunity to pick up his dialect Hokkien. Later in school, he will grasp Bahasa Malaysia too. It's really a good opportunity because our Malaysian children have a wide choice in languages since we are varieties.

Praise God for Malaysian...

Pingu Vs Maximus

Maximus loves to watch Pingu and he will insist watching the same story again and again. I understand that most toddlers learn from observing and imitating others especially the adults. But I least expect that Maximus will learn from his cartoon Pingu.

In one of the episode in the Pingu cartoon, Maximus imitated Pingu's naughty actions... Pingu stepped into the boxes and wore them like shoes. Low and behold, my dear Maximus did the same thing one night while playing with my new purse that was in the box. He took out the purse and put the box on the floor. He did exactly what Pingu did...and found it very amusing!

Quickly I got him to redo and manage to capture the moment.

Above: A snapshot of the Pingu episode.
Below: Maximus imitating Pingu

Learning Experience

According to Piaget, children are naturally curious therefore they are constantly want to make sense out of their experience. Children come to understand the world by using mental categories (or schemes) to organised, process and relate experiences. Toddlers are quick to grasp new learning experiences and the schemes are constantly changed. The learning experiences involves two processes known as the assimilation and accommodation.
To make these 2 big jargon into lay-men terms, the assimilation is an existing learning process that has been categorised in the child's mind and the accommodation is when the category is being modified based on new learning.
A very clear example that I can relate to is based on Maximus's learning experience in term of the vehicles name. He has learned to about car - what is a car? How does a car looks like? etc. He can point to a car and say "car" when he sees one. Then later he learned about bus. He learned to say "bus" and then made a relation between the car and the bus. He categorised that car is smaller than a bus. So, in his little world he understands that a bus is big and a car is smaller.
Soon, he applied his skills - each time when he sees any vehicle bigger than a car (be it a lorry, truck, van etc) he will say it as "bus". Here, I've to correct him and tell him that it's a van or a truck instead. So to accommodate his new lesson, he modified his initial understand on the bus. Thus, he learns that not every vehicle that is bigger than a car is a bus!
I am really excited over this learning curve especially at this stage. Being a toddlers is a great realm of learning ...

Fireworks

Bang! Boom! Boom! Bang! The sound of fireworks and firecrackers shooting here and there during the CNY celebration especially on the night ushering into the 1st day of CNY. In the beginning it was such a fright for Maximus but when I got him out to look at those beautiful fireworks shooting up into the sky like stars....Maximus was so excited! He pointed into the sky and relate those fireworks as "stars". He started shouting "starrr...starrr...starrr!" when he saw those bright, colourful sparking fireworks shooting into the nite sky.
Although he is not aware of those as fireworks, I was glad that he has overcome the fear! Thus, he is able to sleep soundly through the nites despite those loud booming...and banging...sound of the fireworks!
Besides that, he has a close encouter playing and enjoying the fireworks and sparklers. With daddy's guide, he held the sparklers and watched it burnt! As usual, he showed no facial expresion except for the stunning blur look! Yet, he enjoyed himself...It was a wonderful and fun experience for him...

Maximus with daddy playing with his 1st sparklers...

15months Vocabulary

Toddlers' language development is at the high speed as they tried so much to absorb everything they heard and learnt. They are able to pick up a total of 10-15 words in their vocabulary in single words. Toddlers can imitate the sounds heard but some do not make any sense to them so they will forget them. Parents should acknowledge and repeat the word when their toddler made sounds with meaning.

As I counted, Maximus's vocabulary has reach to 10 words since he touches 15 months...he started with car and now he picks up new words now and then.

The new words till today - bag, star

The accumulated words till 15 months - car, shoes (shoo), ball, bear, bus (baa), cat, clock (crok), milk, ma-mi, papa, biscuit ('kert), balloon (b'loon) etc...

It's not the quantity to count but it's more of the understanding and the use of the words in their daily communication. Maximus hardly use some words as he rather use his sign language or point to the item. I am sure sooner or later he will grasp more practical words and mostly through imitation.

It's a fun stage having to listen to them speaking... from single words to multiple words to sentences.

Another learning experience

This is another learning curve for Maximus... Having a river cruise in the boat!
During the 3rd day of CNY, we brought Maximus for a night tour around Melaka to enjoy the red-lantern street at Jonker street and Jalan Kota (Stadhuys Building and Malacca River) area. We took the opportunity to "enjoy" the Melaka river cruise. That river was once upon a time the international trading place! So we want to have a feel on our "international" trading port...
Obviously being a Malaccan, I would say that it's really-really boring! But putting myself into the tourist or a non-Malacca, it's just alright! Moreover, nothing to loose since the fare is reasonably cheap. - Adult RM 10 and Children from 2 years old RM 5
The river is 4.5 km and the duration of the cruise is 45 minutes...
However, we got bored after 15 minutes of the ride... Eventually Maximus fell asleep then after whinning for so long.

However, it's a good learning curve for Maximus as he experienced the water current when the boat propeller moves in the water. He had a close observation at the water and also experienced the breeze... There are nothing much to watch along the river... the only attraction is the musical fountain and Maximus likes that.

CNY Reunion Dinner

Maximus has his 2nd CNY reunion dinner with the family since he was born. Reflecting to a year ago, he was only able to be the "observer", lying in his baby carrier and the Gym-mat while we were enjoying dinner.
Now, it's a year past! Maximus has another opportunity to enjoy the reunion dinner. But, this year he is the "participant" for the dinner. He sat together with us at the dinning table - straped in his booster seat and enjoying his meal! It is not something new to him having to have dinner with us, but it was to us - having him to have not only dinner but the CNY reunion dinner with us. It's really a joy to have him in the family celebrating all the festival together. It brings us great happiness as we enjoy our meal while waiting to user in the new lunar year-The tiger roaring in!

Being around other children

Toddlers reaching 15 months start to get socially incline and enjoy mixing with other toddlers. Although they only engage with parallel play or play along side instead of playing together, these toddlers are still aware of other children around them. There will be gestures exchanging i.e. a smile, hi-5 or a hug.
Maximus enjoys having other children around and with the girls he will give them a hug and with the boys he will give a hi-5 or a handshake. Most of the time, he observes them and wants to follow them especially those who are elder than him.
There is an attractive spot at Leisure Mall, where interactive media were projected on the floor at the entrance of craving lane. This spot attracts lots of children to play around the projected media. Maximus loves that spot too especially when he can just be around other children - imitating what they are doing, or just watching them and following them around. Maximus is quick to make friends with them although most of the time he was being ignored. But it's his joy to be around those children.
Maximus wants company and dislike being alone... although he has not grasp the skill of making friends or joining a group, he does enjoy being in the presence of other children. I am sure he can adapt quickly especially when children are around.
Check out the photos...














left: Maximus trying to make friend with the bigger boy.
right: Maximus watching others playing from far.
bottom: Maximus moved closer to watch them.

Car wash experience

Every day is a day of new experience and exploration for toddlers. Most toddlers are always learning new things, trying new things experiencing new events. It's a wide world out there for them especially when they are beginning to step out from their own world. Toddlerhood is full with excitement and fun especially in exploring the new environment.

Maximus gets very excited and full with awe when he experiences new things. All the learning about his environment will take place mostly during weekend and we will plan for it.

Last Saturday, hubby decided to get his car wash. We went to a drive-tru car wash at BP station. Maximus was in awe and amazed with those water slashing, foam, and the drier. When the water splashed onto the window, he took his napkin to wipe it...haha. It's such a cute and smart move. He enjoyed watching the brushes turning and spinning around too.

It was really a good experience for him.

Feeding himself porride

Maximus is learning to feed himself by imitating how I scooped and put the food into the mouth. He has good eye-hand coordination and able to grip firmly his spoon too.

Sweet Dreams...

When Maximus was born, he slept in his bassinet. Then for his nap, he slept in the bouncing net. He was slowly being rocked to sleep in his extra-large bouncing net but soon when he turned 5-6 mos, he was transferred into the "sarung" cradle....
He slept in the "sarung" till now for his nap since the rocking motion will make him drowsy and sleepy...
During night, he will be sleeping soundly in his cot next to mummy and daddy's bed until.... he outgrown the bassinet, the bouncing net, cot and soon his "sarung".
Now in his toddlerhood, he has graduated from the bassinet, the bouncing net and cot!
He is sleeping in a super-single bed now!
It's always a sweet dream ....

Penmenship at toddler

Am I seeing that the "prophetic" act during Maximus's 1st birthday coming to reality? It's not usual of me for being supersitious or believing in the myths of cultures. But we carried out a Chinese culture on Maximus during his 1st birthday - picking up objects that will resemble him in the future. Yes, it sounded very mythical but it's just for fun sake and to continue on with the culture. The 1st object that he picked was a pen which it was supossed to represent his penmenship skill.
Now, after it's 2 months after his 1st birthday and we are seeing his interest in "writing". Each time when he gets hold of the pen or pencil, he will be sitting on the stool at the coffee table and starts with his "writing". He can spend a good span of attention in carrying out the task.
Of course I have never encourage writing at such young age and neither holding pencil or any writing tool because it's not in the milestone yet until later age. But I am surprise that Maximus is enjoying his "writing" activity (more on scribbling). The milestone in writing ability begins with scribbling (uncontrol scribble) anyway. So it's alright for him to just scribbling along. In addition, I am also not bothered to correct his method of holding the writing tool. It's more on the natural development and later will lead to nuturing him at the suitable age.
Looking at how Maximus enjoys using the writing tool to scribble is already the best! I am not expecting anything more...
I hope that most preschool especially in the pre-nursery (3 years) will not get the children started with holding any writing tool to write properly. I do wish that the mindset of parents to get children started writing at 3 years to change. Besides giving them the handwriting activities, there are better sensorial and eye-hand coordination activities. Handwriting ability will start when the activities have been done develomentally appropriate. Teachers should be able to equip themselves with the knowledge.
I recalled giving the Pre-Nursery and Nursery teachers from a chain of preschool an actual hands-on activities that enable them to relate to giving the 3/4 years old writing activities before acheiving their milestone. The training topic "Using Multi-sensory Technique to prepare for handwriting ability" was an eye-opener to most of the teachers.
So, I do want to also practise what I preached. Therefore even my Maximus is enjoying his initial "penmenship" activity, I will allow it to develop naturally then.

Trying to imitate to scribble the picture and then talk about what he has scribbled!

My 14-months Language development

A 14-months learns a new word everyday to add on to his/her vocabulary list. It's a tremendous achievement and a giant leap in the language development. From my reading, it was said that by 2-years most children can say and understand more than 100 or more words. I don't think I can count the number of vocabulary that Maximus can understand but words spoken are more countable. What-so-ever, I am fascinated with his language development especially in understanding instructions.

There are many ways to nurture language development for toddlers. However, I prefer it to be as natural and not too much into drilling or using those silly flash cards. I strongly believe that a child will pick up language from the normal routine conversation / talk, songs / rhymes and definitely through imitation. I realised that Maximus learns at the peak from imitation and games (songs/rhymes and books).

Some new words that Maximus has learnt to say are:

1. ball /bor/
2. balloon /b'-oon/
3. cat /cat/
4. tiger /-ger/
5. biscuit /'kert/
6. mama
7. papa

And so the list will go on but these are some of the highly frequency words that he says most of the time. As for his sign language, he can show the sign of sleeping and going to toilet.

Since newborn, I try all the best not to use baby-language but to speak in proper language although his grandma still use some common baby-language such as nen-nen or mum-mum. No doubt there will be some confusion but I am glad that Maximus is able to differentiate the usage by distinguish between speaking to me and his por-por.

I hope that Maximus will soon learn to call us daddy and mummy in proper to address us although he says it as papa and mama.

School Readiness

As the new year school term begins, most new parents are into school scouting for their children even as young as 12-months. There are so many types of programme for children from as young as toddlers. Mostly these programme has been mushrooming fast into the market to fullfill the demand of these "kiasu" parents. However, what is exactly school readiness? Is it focusing on academic or on developmental?

Most of the enrichement programme or the toddler's programme for 2-years onwards are mainly focusing on the academic such as being advance in knowing how to write, read, or count especially in mental-arithematic. Is this the focus for being school readiness? As i read from a blogger who won nuffnag Asia Pasific Blog Award in Best Parenting Blog 2009 , I realised that "kaisu" parents are not only in Malaysia but everywhere even in Australia.

For myself, being a new parent and an early childhood educationlist, I am also in the run to look for a comprehensive toddler's programme. However, my objective is for Maximus to socialise and to enjoy himself. He needs not be to attend 5 days programme but at least 2-3 times programme in a week.

It's really very sad at times to see Maximus feeling loney at home and nothing to explore since most of the areas have been child-proof by me! However it's also not easy to look for such programme in consideration to the location and price. Other than that, I am really particular with the programme - it must strike the balance. There is this programme only using music which Maximus attended the trial class. I found that it's a very mundate programme which I won't waste my RM 70 every month for such programme since I can carry out at home.

Well, come to the worst senario if I can't find a suitable play-based programme for Maximus it's also an option to set up a play-date group among friends. This will also enable Maximus to play and socialised with others too.

14-months Toddler's skills

A 14-months toddler has already achieve a great range of skills in his milestones. Parents are marvel over the great achievement as the toddler portraits his/her abilities at his/her own pace. The toddler also discovered the fun of being independent.

Maximus is also been achieving much in his milestones and gaining his independence in doing things. His understanding in his basic routines, instructions and rules has also been showing much improvement since he last moved into his toddler-hood.

As a 14-months, Maximus is able to:

1. stoop down and stand back up as if he is wanting to jump. He understands when I tell him to jump although he has not master his jumping skill yet.
   
2. screw and unscrew a bottle cap.
   
3. identify similar objects and show that they are the same by pointing to it.
4. remember places especially those places that he knows that there are fun i.e. the car ride at Tesco.
5. imitate actions such as zipping, zap-unzap his shoes, scoop his food and feed himself etc.
6. carry out simple instructions such as wipe the table/floor, look for his napkin, pass the newspaper or any item etc.
7. share or offer food to others.
8. wave good bye independently when he is going out or going to sleep.
   
9. comb his hair and remove his shoes.

From left-right: Combing skill, screwing/unscrewing bottle cap, scoop food using spoon & feed himself.

The above skills are the common skills that he has shown yet enjoy doing them. His fine-motor skills and eye-hand coordination have been showing much improvement and has moved ahead in his milestones too. Of course, I am always looking into his new abilities but allow him to achieve it at his own pace.

Little by little, Maximus has also able to use his baby-sign language to communicate. Yet, he is showing sign of talking by exploring those sounds and imitating others who speak to him. He has show his first attempt in calling "mummy" by making the sound "mah" and "daddy" by making the sound "dah". It's slowly but surely he begins to pick up new vocabs too.

Toddlers at this stage has totally adapt him/herself in the toddler-hood. There are much to learn, to explore and to experience, however everything is a world of fun for them. It's really amazing to watch how my lil toddler learns and applying his new skills. On the other hand, accepting his natural characters and personality.

I hope to be able to nurture his nature so that there won't be any much stress or expectiation as he venture his childhood journey.