Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

Went for the regular meet the parents session for Cayson and it was quite a breeze as usual. Teacher commented that he continued to 举一反三 (could extrapolate his learning from one thing to another) and hence, could pick up things very fast. If teacher mentioned carrot, he would start singing a related song that features carrot for example. He has a song for everything.  His chinese teacher claims his mandarin is the best in class as he could make sentences in mandarin (but his class is primarily foreigner I recall, haha)  On sharing, he’s also good. When his friend was on the tricycle he wanted, he waited patiently for his turn and also told his teacher explicitly that he’s waiting for his classmate to finish.  He’s able to independently prepare his mattress/bedding for nap and even bathe himself. He would always be the first to sleep and last to wake, and apparently can sleep through thunderstorm as well.  On food, he’s getting pickier but teacher recommended to respe...

Me: How’s the Lion King performance today? C: Good, I like Xavier?  Me: Who? Xavier Tan ? Xavier Huang?  C: No, Xavier the bunny? Me: Why you like Xavier the bunny?  C: He brought many dinosaurs. Oh and we eat food on the bus. Sandwiches.  Me: So where did you watch it? C: Sentosa. Me: Oh, Resorts World  C: No. Me: MBS ? C: No. (I give up. Don’t know where’s the venue and the teacher letter never say) Me: So what else do you like? C: I like the hyenas . Me: Why? Why you like hyenas ? They are evil. C: I like evil.  Me: No, evil is bad.  C: laughs .. I like hyenas.  Me: By the way, tell Cayen who’s Xavier?  C: Xavier’s the hyenas .. I’m so confused. So who’s the real Xavier in the Lion Kong show?  —— Cayson got punished today for the first time ever in pre school. During nap time, he didn’t sleep and jumped on his bed despite teacher telling him to stop. So he was sent to naughty corner.  So I minus his Dojo points later too.  N...

Cayson’s verbal skills have improved a lot over the last few weeks.. here’s some conversations we’ve had recently ..  Spent the day with Cayson at the National Gallery a few weeks ago .. was surprised at how advanced his conversational skills are now. He was building some blocks and saying this is an attic. I asked him who taught him attic , he said Peppa Pig. Then we were having lunch, as we were eating , I was thinking about something. He suddenly laughed and said, “Ah Ma eating and Ah Ma freeze” which was quite an accurate observation.  Then I asked him some questions: Me: do you like what you played just now? C: yes Me: this kind of playing is good. Playing Youtube, iPhone and TV is bad. C: Playing with Ah Yen (Cayen)? Me: good C: Playing basketball? Me: Good C: Shichida? Me: Good  And it went on. He was able to relate and point out many other things that I would define as good. I think his 举一反三 is pretty good for a three year old.  —————— I was trying to teach h...

As part of the regular meet the parent session, I joined Cayson to make ice cream. Think I must be the only one who managed to tear two plastics bags in a row due to vigorous shaking. It’s good fun as Cayson tried his hand at making ice cream from Meiji strawberry milk.  Teacher’s feedback on him is still good as usual as he’s still quite an obedient and easy going kid though she did remark that he’s picky with some food like vegetables now. And whilst he’s 99% agreeable in the past, he’s been more prone to his own opinion (I read it as trying to get his way). And sometimes he followed his classmates’ action of scribbling away randomly during colouring when he used to colour carefully within the lines. Observations were quite in line with what we see at home. Recently he would cry when he doesn’t get his way. For instance, we were playing snakes and ladders and he started crying when I made him slide down when he hit a snake. He kept screaming “I want to win”. Later on, he proceede...

1) I usually am very causal on weekend, just a top and shorts. One day whilst spring cleaning, I found a long flowery dress and I wore it. Cayson saw me and said “Ah Ma, so pretty !” . And he never ever said it to me before. I think he went on to repeat his compliment again.  Lesson learnt: need to dress up more.  2) He was trying to talk to me. But I’m talking to someone then. He started to try “ My dear Ah Ma” but I ignored him. He repeated a few more times. It’s quite funny cox he never acdrsssd me as Dear Ah Ma before . Lesson Learnt: He knows how to use the right words to get attention (though it didn’t work on me, I sure heard him alright). 

Brought Cayen and Cayson to the zoo yesterday. Saw a lot of adults and children and all were in awe of the animals that they are seeing and how everybody seemed to really love the animals , from snakes and tortoises to elephants and giraffes.  However, the sad part is that many of these animals are already endangered and may become extinct very shortly. I fear for the future of our children as they will inherit an unlivable planet from us - very hot weather, plastics in our oceans and seafood, increased sea levels, extinct wildlife... Many years down the road, they will all ask why we didn’t do anything when we could.  If we relate back to our recent crazy hot weather in Singapore, the heatwaves in France and UK, it’s quite evident that the planet is not the same anymore and it’s caving in fast with all the ice melting. The planet is giving us some severe warning signs, and giving us the last chance to act before irreversible change happens (when we hit the tipping point). Thi...

In a blink of an eye, Cayson has turned 3. In the past year, he has learnt a lot of new words and sentences and is a real imaginative kid. He can play with his dinosaurs and animals for hours, in his own make belief world. He’s also very eager and participative when I invite him to come up with random “once upon a time” stories.  He’s still his very polite self when he will say please and thank you. In fact, if you do him wrong, he will also request you to “say sorry to him” too, which is quite funny.  His mandarin is above average in his class (cox they are all expats) though sometimes when he sings, I still cannot make our the song. For instance, he makes us laugh when we finally worked out the song he’s singing when we heard it in a movie that day .. “小兔子乖乖，拔萝卜。。。。。 不开不开我不开，妈妈没回来” He still enjoys taking the bus and mrt , and so I would wake up early on Sunday mornings to take public transport. There’s once when the train broke down and we had to switched to bus midway . Man...