We sat down singing on the bench side by side. We walked up the stairs and went down the slide hand in hand. Thank you for being such a great company! It’s been a wonderful week. See you soon, my friend!
Lenaig
Monthly Archives: June 2016
Eat!
Someone just has such a keen eye for restaurants and never forgets…
Bye-bye, Brown Room
Can’t believe this is Randall’s last school day in Brown Room. Can’t believe how much he has grown since the beginning of the school year. Back then he was such a little baby who would be too shy to wave or smile to people, who didn’t dare to go down the slide, who couldn’t even say a word. And now we see a boy who no longer clings to his mummy or daddy, who climbs up ladders and slides like big kids, and who can, to some extent, deal with his own feelings and work out problems on his own. It’s been a great year for him and for his parents! It just feels a little sad that we are moving and kids at this age do not get the idea of not being able to see someone again that they’ve loved and trusted through this whole year.
Puzzle Maniac
This is now what Randall starts his morning and ends his day with: the vehicle puzzles, or as he calls it, “puzzle car”. He would cheerfully go to bed only if he has finished all 4 puzzles in the box, in a fixed sequence every time, of race car, school bus, train, and fire truck. I didn’t expect him to be ready for this 12-piece set at this time yet, for he couldn’t even do the 8-piece farm puzzle. And indeed in the beginning, he almost had no clue of what pieces match and what don’t. But he is SO obsessed with cars. Unlike with the old farm puzzles which I could hardly get him interested in, he asked us to sit down with him once or twice a day to work on the vehicle puzzle together. Now, after one week’s time, he has become pretty good at it. He can put them together all on his own and put them back in separate compartments. He can even figure out which pieces belong to which puzzle.
This reminds me of how I once struggled with the choice of toys. But in the end I just gave up the idea of trying to catch him up with the so-called average skills of his age. He didn’t appear very interested in drawing (esp. on paper). Nor was he verbal. “Forget about it! Just spoil him”, I decided. And by saying “spoil him”, I meant getting him toys he would most likely be interested in and saving myself from worrying about the development chart all the time. Now our apartment has become more like a garage, parked with toy vehicles of all sorts and all sizes. Besides Randall has an entire storage box dedicated to his train tracks. And like many other boys of his age, he just spends a whole of lot time doing nothing but line up or “drive” these vehicles. But now I see my way of “spoiling him” seems to have worked out. He has found something interesting for himself and keeps working on it till he gets there. Still, of course, I am always ready to help him explore new areas and new possibilities, like I get him new books every so often, check out toddler swimming classes, and give him a set of chalks in addition to the crayons.
Swirling up
Hippo Spring Fair
The annual Spring Fair at Hippo playground was postponed to June 5th due to bad weather, luckily! Otherwise Randall would have missed it because of being sick. And even more luckily, the weather wasn’t so good on the new date either. Otherwise there could have been huge lines! It was already pretty dark outside at 10am, the scheduled opening time. We still decided to give it a try and to see how Randall would like the bouncy castles. There had been a very simple one, more like a mattress than a “castle”, at his gym class, and Randall had been afraid of it until just one day earlier. To our sheer surprise, Randall got so excited once we got into the park and couldn’t wait to try everything out. There were two bouncy castles that involved some rock-climbing like activities. When Randall was lining up for one of them, I told daddy that he might not be able to do it and we might have to bring him out. Again, our boy surprised us! After a few failed attempts at the beginning, he climbed all the way up to the top and rewarded himself by taking that huge slide down to the ground. He did it one more time thereafter, and that second time he was even able to stand in line by himself without being anxious or impatient. Later he also tried the other one with a much higher and even steeper slope, on which he only managed to get himself halfway to the top, but that was surely good enough.
Hop, hop, hop!
Up to the top!
Wait, wait, wait!
Swinnnnng!
Bar, bar, black sheep, and rabbits!
Catch the ducklings!
Milk for a kiss
Except for a couple of routines like saying goodbye or good night, Randall doesn’t give out kisses for free. And you’ll just get a nasty face and be pushed away if you ask for it at a bad time. “I’ll tell you something that can get you a nice kiss from him.” I said to daddy this evening, handing him Randall’s bottle. Dubious at first, daddy tried it out by saying “You want the milk? Give me a kiss first.” We both burst into laughter when Randall did exactly what I had expected.
Mary
Still remember Randall’s first date? They then became classmates for the afternoon class. What a small world!
Ran Ran 