New Year New Beginnings ...

Time flies and Cayen is now 3 year 2 months old ... And the last year has seen this spirited boy grow from strength to strength and his playfulness in leaps and bounds. 

What do I mean ? Well, these are his "achievements" for 2015 . He is the boy 

- who is top 3 naughtiest in the whole of Mindchamps Zhongshan Park ..
- who always sprays the hand sanitiser all over the floor and sometimes throws his classmates' shoes all over the floor on his way home. 
- who will run into the toilet with his best friend (he claims is the naughtiest), strip themselves and play with water without permission 
- who will fight with his classmates over toys 
- who will run under the security gantry barriers instead of through the gantry barriers so he can hear the alarm go off (and no, he's not scared of the security guard threatening to catch him and send him to police station) 
- who will ask the security guard and our neighbour for chocolates proactively (after they were kind enough to give him some before)
- who will try to hit someone in the lift if they stand too near him 
- who will press multiple floors in the lift so he can relish seeing the door open and close 
- who will purposely do or say the opposite as what you want him to say . (If we want him to say Hello, he will purposely say Bye Bye) 
- who insists on riding on Ah Gong's shoulders when out, and riding on Ah Gong to go to bed. 
- who can climb and stand right on top of the sofa seat and the bar top in a flash 
- pour out all the cat food and water in a flash 
- who refuses to nap in the afternoon and stay up till 11pm at night .. (Too much energy ) 
- who insists on choosing his own clothes and shoes.
- who perplexes his teachers as they said he's smart but sometimes wouldn't listen or obey rules.

Yet, he's also the same boy 
- who voluntarily offered to share his Christmas presents with Ah Pa when he saw that he has many presents and Ah Pa initially had none. 
- who will "charge" his Ah Pa by kissing cheek to cheek and hugging him every day 
- who will wait up if we are not home by his sleep time 
- who insists on (ah Pa) reading advanced Chinese books on 自救，礼仪，好习惯 , 安全 and English books like Boy who catch the star etc every night for 1-2 hours every night
- who can create his own stories or adapt existing stories freely 
- who replies to our sing-song statements with his own brand of sing-song responses .. (His lyrical skills are impressive!)
- who actually learns something from YouTube .. like Ellipse (the shape that looks like oval) and the 2 timetable ... 
- who gives 2 Farewell presents to the girls and 1 to the boys ..
- who told his teacher to see him at the new school cox he likes her a lot and wants her to go with him 
- who hugs his best friends in class for no reason 
- who talks and argues like a little adult , to the great amusement of teachers and friends. 
- who loves commercials and can recall words like Oishi etc ... (I sometimes think modern ads are for kids and not adults) 
- who helps ah Po hang his own socks 
- who likes to speak to Siri ("Siri, I love you!") 
- who has figured out how to message Ah Pa with Emoticons using my iWatch , set alarms, trigger the calculator. 
- who remembers things after only one mention .. And regurgitate after a week or two. 
- is effectively bilingual in English and Chinese

Given his extremely high level of energy and his tendency to do mischief , I have decided to change his school from Mindchamps to Pat's schoolhouse. While Mindchamps have a good syllabus (I can see that his phonics and grammar is pretty decent), but he does need some outdoor space and long vintage experienced teachers who can rein him in , and convert his energy into something useful. Let's hope this works out. 

Am also taking the chance to convert him to his own room by redecorating his room to be a "minion hotel". 

Let's hope the new year brings new progress on all fronts. May the force be with us. 

Last day in school 

New room 

New haircut for the new year 


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