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...

We had Cayson Parents Meet Teacher session last Saturday. As usual, it was a breeze as teachers were full of compliments as he was very easy to handle.  Here’s some highlights : He’s very observant. If they play any games where they hide stickers or objects, he usually will find 7-8 out of 10 items in the whole class.  He’s able to empathise. One time when a friend was unhappy, he went over to try to play with her. But she was still angry as another girl friend didn’t want to play with her, so Cayson asked her “why?” He knows how to share very well. When he overheard his friend telling the teacher that he want to play with a toy (that Cayson is holding on to), he went to pass it to his friend automatically without anyone asking.   He’s able to speak in full Chinese sentences, and tell a short story.  He’s able to 举一反三..so he learns very fast and will ask related question. If he learns something today, tomorrow he will be able to relate if a similar thing ...

Cayen got into trouble in school twice last week . Last week I tried to talk him out of it by telling him about going to boys’ home or jail if he were to keep on doing that.  Yesterday, I returned to find that he has committed another mischief again. Apparently Cayson then asked him why he’s doing it again. Does he want to go to boys’ school or jail ? If he goes there,  Ah Pa and Ah Ma will be very sad. Cayson will be very sad too as there will be no one to protect him in Pats schoolhouse. He will be happy to share all his toys but there will not be anyone to share with.  With this, Cayen burst into tears. Let’s just hope that this heart to heart prep talk by his younger brother beats the usual punishment and naughty corner. Let’s see.

Ah Po was cooking in the kitchen. Cayson then said to her, ”Ah Po 我 shh shh 了 .. ” Ah Po hurried over to help, only to realise that he has already pulled his pants down , peed and wore his pants back. That’s a real milestone moment! Then two days later i.e. today,  he did the same for pooping as well. Hope he gets toilet trained completely before his third birthday! Will save a lot of diapers and save the Earth! —— We were just lying on the bed talking , he saw his tummy protruding . He patted it and said “fat fat ... like Ah Gong .., cannot squeeze it”. I rolled over laughing.  —— Most Fridays, we would go out of the house for some drinks with friends and usually we won’t bring Cayson but he has since detected this trend. Yesterday, Ah Pa tried to ask him to go buy bread for Cayen , he refused. He told Ah Pa,  “ I love you very much Ah Pa .. can you bring me..?” This is when it’s not clear that we are going out. Needless to say, with this type of emotional blackmail, he ...

Last night Ah Po cooked a fish for dinner. One of the cats was fast as lightning - it jumped onto the table and grabbed the fish with its teeth. It quickly went under the table to enjoy his steal.  Little Cayson kneeled now and asked the cat, “ Ah neow (Cat), can you give me back my fish?” ——— Ah Po was cooking so gave Cayson the iPad to watch. After she’s done, she asked Cayson, “ Cayson, stop watching already. Have you fed your dinosaurs already? They are hungry”  Without hesitation, he put down the iPad , and proceeded to feed his dinosaurs. First, he lay all of them down on the floor and got a box of “food” and started feeding them in a very structured manner.  ———- Cayson met a neighbour in the lift.  Neighbour : where are you going? Cayson: go buy ba hu (pork floss in hokkien) bun for Ah Yen . Neighbour: how old are you? Cayson: coming 3  ———— Last night, I was still working late at work. Got a message from Da to ask if I’m home yet. Reason is because Cay...

Ah Po sprained her leg or pulled a muscle , and could hardly walk. The caring Cayson asked her if she need his help to carry her. 沒有白疼.. also took the chance to teach them yesterday on how to collect the laundry. Cayen helped with a couple of pieces before being distracted by the TV. Cayson followed through till the last piece was collected.  One Sunday, I was trying to sweep and mop the floor. Cayen asked to help and so I let him try. He earnestly cleaned the floor quite thoroughly though his eyes were drawn to the TV towards the end , where he cleaned the same patch many times. Cayson was also given a wiping job so he wouldn’t fight over the wiping - he was extremely conscientious about his responsibility.  Apart from this, I also realised that one month just passed like that. Cayson had concluded his second ever stage performance and Cayen had completed his second month in Primary school.  Cayen has finally moved on to pasta after one month of chicken rice. And...

It’s nearly been one month since he started Primary one. He’s still eating chicken rice as of now. Or rather, he has not tried anything else. Also, he now has enough time to eat chicken rice, and then go to the pond later to play with his friends.  To date, he’s had two brushes as well, literally. First, it was for a misunderstanding where two boys thought they were supposed to be first in line and the other boy bit him when they were heading down the stairs. Apparently it all started when the boy “cut his queue” , and when he would not listen and go back to his original position,  Cayen stepped right back in front of him but not before kicking him.   Second incident, he was playing with his friend when someone ran fast from behind and pushed him down. He fell flat and cut his nose, elbows and knees.  Looks like Primary One is not going to be a bed of roses when it comes to scratches and wounds, particularly in a boy’s school.  As of now, he’s had his first chin...

Every time Ah Gong leaves the house, he will ask “Ah Gong, where are you going?”.  One day, he repeated his question .. this time in a knowing way.  C:  Ah Gong, where are you going? Mahjong? Ah Gong: Yes C: You have money?  (We rolled over laughing. How did he know money is required?) —  Today, we were preparing to go out for a birthday party but he didn’t know. So he asked me.. C: Ah Ma, where are we going ?  Then he cheekily added , “Mahjong?”  — Cayson went to the party .. at one point, I saw him chasing two girls .. screaming “我是霸王龙”（I am T Rex)..  I hope they are just playing catch ...  Somehow I feel like I need to tell him, this is not the way to chase girls... (女孩子不是这样追的).  — He likes to lift heavy things and exclaim that he’s “muscle man” ! He sure is quite strong for his size.  — He’s pretty much fearless. He climbed up the slopes very quickly and slides down the slides without hesitation. He must be the youngest kid on t...

Is chinese language really so hard to learn ? As a kid, I have no issues with chinese till secondary school as we speak mainly Chinese and dialect at home when I was young. I only started disliking it after I got to secondary school as there’s just a lot of memorising and rote learning and it ceased to be enjoyable.  Now I am facing the same issue with the kids who don’t seem to get chinese though we do speak it at home. For instance, I have repeated the reading of the same book to Cayson for weeks but he simply cannot remember the chinese word for hippo , beaver and crocodile despite knowing the English equivalent. For crocodile, he would call it a shark in chinese 鲨鱼 which is on the next page. And he can’t recall it five minutes after I corrected him. As I repeated myself calmly for the 100th time , I reminded myself he’s really good in jigsaw puzzles for his age and he’s got very high empathy skills and hence, not being able to grasp these chinese words is really no big deal at ...

Cayen ate  chicken rice again but the only difference was that he only had $2 today. So when asked what he drank, he said he had no money to buy drink, he then hugged his water bottle and said he had only this. (No money for mogu mogu.. haha). (Recap: he had asked for $2 for Mon, Wed and Fri and for $2.50 on 2 treat days on Tue and Thu.) Hence, he renegotiated. How about $2.50 for Mon, Wed and Fri?  I was half expecting that he would say $2 for Tue and Thu but he had proposed $3 for these two days instead.  —  I asked him if he had anything he didn’t know in class. He said he didn’t know how to walk to the canteen from his classroom. So I told him to follow the group. But wait, he’s standing at the front of the line, so I think the P4s are leading the pack. I asked him if he had tried PE since he wore the PE shirt the previous day. But he said they didn’t go eventually as the computer was spoilt and they were delayed by 15min.  Then I asked what he did whilst wa...