Just as this week’s gym class was about to end, two wildly running kids bumped into each other and fell. One happened to scrape her belly against the low beam and was crying hysterically, while we saw from a distance that Randall, being the other kid, sat there confused. But when we came close to find out what had happened, Randall suddenly put on a dramatic scene: he started to fake cry. That cry only lasted a few seconds before he found out that we were not going to blame him. Well, someone really had a strategy to play innocent!
Category Archives: the moment
Mama, come in
It was Good Friday today and it was indeed a GOOD Friday, for Randall gave me a whole bunch of surprises all in this one day.
Randall had been to the Children’s Museum a thousand times but it was only this time that he was building a wall on the rainbow bridge, which was something we’d usually see big kids do. After letting him spend three hours at the museum, I finally managed to bring him back home. The moment he walked into the apartment he made his very first short sentence, “Mama, come in.”, which totally threw me into amazement. Later he also said “Baba, come here sit down.”
Then in the afternoon, when he was working on his bead maze by himself and finally coordinated his two hands to move the beads over a bump, he uttered “I did it!” with huge delight. I was so happy and surprised to hear just another sentence from him and replied “Yes, you did it!” Later that evening when he was “reading” his potty book, I realized that he could do more than remembering the object names and filling in the holes of those lines in his favorite books. He could sometimes say the complete sentence when he turned to that page.
Another interesting discovery was that Randall had picked up some potty skills from school. He would now say “diaper change”, and before we got a chance to respond he would already have pulled down his pants and taken off the diaper. Once he even told me that he was going to poop right before taking the action.
Here’s the best part – he came to us saying “diaper change” this evening, and after repeating the words a few times but seeing only confusion in our eyes, he tried something slightly different, “diaper huan(换)”.
Happy Birthday
This was the second week of March, and we were on our way to the third birthday party this year. I decided to teach him to say “happy birthday” so that he could say that to his birthday friend, Alex, when we got there. But after realizing that it was a little too hard for him to pronounce these words altogether, I switched to a different strategy: I started with “happy” and Randall repeated with perfect accuracy. Then I tried “Happy birthday” again, and Randall responded, with a big smile on his face, “to Randall!”.
And once again we witnessed the closeness between Randall and his little girlfriend. Along with some other kids, they were taken on a cheerful choo-choo ride by Alex’s father and the two kids always wanted to sit next to each other. Randall even told Lenaig to be seated on his designated spot first before boarding the car himself.
Photo Book
Check out this premium quality photo book of Randall on Blurb, a gift for his 2nd birthday.
Bear
The very first toy chosen by Randall himself.
Randall is a good planner, for he always remembers to pick a toy to take along with him before he goes out, or gets ready to be changed, or is given a shower. The choice of the toys depends on the type of the activity. For example, if it’s for a shower, he would usually find a cup or a watering can; or if for a walk, he’d grab his cars – an all-time favorite. But this morning, he considered something different. As soon as mom got him ready for school, he jumped onto the couch to get his new toy bear which we had bought him two days before. Unfortunately though, mom and dad didn’t allow him to carry this bear to school since he would barely be able to walk while holding such a large “animal” in front of himself. And as had been expected, he immediately burst into tears and couldn’t be comforted even if mom tried offering him his cars as an exchange.
Now I am recalling how sweet he was this morning when he picked up the bear and kissed it, thinking contently that he was gonna have this new buddy as his company on his way to school. I also remember how two days ago he stood in front of that shelf of plush toys, pointed to it and said the word “bear”. He gave back to me the yogurt pouch he had been drinking from as a way to free up his hands for something new. A few minutes later, he was walking in the street with a bear that was almost his own size. It was funny to watch.
Merry Christmas 2015
Girlfriend
It was Randall’s first play date with his classmates this morning. The kids had great fun with the whole bunch of toys at Dasha’s home and loved the pastries we had brought there. Although they enjoyed being around their friends, there was not much interaction and they were most of the time parallel playing. Until, Lenaig came. A minute before, Randall had been all about toys and food and hadn’t even wondered where mommy had been, but now he was following this girl around everywhere. When they finally “met”, they gave each other a BIG HUG. It was so sweet and soooo funny! All of us parents were watching and laughing. Later on when Randall was ready to leave, Lenaig came all the way to the corridor to wave goodbye to Randall, who then grabbed her hand and attempted to give her a kiss.
Endless No’s
We are happy that Randall starts to have his first words, like ‘nai nai’ for milk, ‘ba’ for bye, ‘abu’ for open, although he does not voluntarily call us by mama or dada yet. Well, the bad news is he’s now practicing his very first word any chance he got.
– Would you like to have some milk?
– Buh (his word for ‘no’).
– Would you like to wash your hands?
– Buh.
– Could you please come down from the chair?
– Buh.
And if you keep asking, you’ll probably end up getting 10 or 20 straight no’s. And that’s what daddy thought the other night when Randall was sitting on the floor playing with his baby wipes. Daddy kept being refused of his suggestions until he hit the right one, “would you like to have some snack?” The little one got up all of a sudden with a delighted face and led his father all the way to the kitchen.
Romie
The Ring
“Oh, no, he swallowed my ring.” I jumped out of the bed, screaming the words I never thought I’d utter. Randall had woken up a few minutes earlier and had started playing with my rings just as usual, by taking them off and putting them back on my fingers time after time. I wasn’t alerted when he put one of the rings into his mouth. We always thought he was not the type that would swallow such things.
But he did. By accident. He was lying down on his back, and the ring slid into his throat. He gagged, and for that one second I was hoping he would cough the thing out. But it was gone. He swallowed it.
Randall seemed just fine as we rushed to emergency room, probably just wondering why we had taken a taxi trip without his schoolbag. I was so scared that I even avoided searching google, usually the first thing I’d turn to whenever something new came up with my son. The online results could be comforting, or could be worrying. Then there came a relief when the nurses at the reception laughed, “he will pass it out”.
He would, the doctor confirmed, after the Randall’s first X-ray pictures showed that the ring was in his stomach. Sunday morning, as I was going through his fourth poop diaper in two days, I got my ring back.
Ran Ran 