Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

Advanced hokkien : "Mai Cah!" (Don't be noisy) . Persuasion :  "输了还要继续玩”... "Ah gong, you need to play until you win" .. That's his pitch to persuade ah gong to play game after game.   Singlish : "Nevermind lah"  Logic : "you eat me, I eat you" , during chess play .. On an unrelated note: I realised that Cayen can spell Cayson's name when he wrote his name on some art work. Wonder when he picked it up. I only recalled telling him long time ago. 

Recently, he has been very naughty in school. From snatching to biting, he has done it all. Serious regression.  When his form teacher confronted him and chided him, he retorted that anyway he will not be studying there anymore. His teacher was infuriated and told him that he still need to behave as he's still here.  Honestly we have not even told him about changing school for a month already (though I did told him a few times causally that we will be hanging to a school with playground some time back). I don't know if it's the fact that he knows his school teacher is leaving  year end or that he is leaving year end that he's behaving so badly of late or it's just terrible threes . Whatever it is , I think it will be a trying transition come year end.  And honestly , where did he learn to retort to teacher in such a matter of fact / irreverent manner? We certainly didn't teach him. Goodness!  ---- Yesterday I tried to wear his long pants for him. As usual , he d...

Today , during storytime, Cayen played with a blue stress ball .. And suddenly asked me, "Ah Po gave me a fruit, it's purple, what is it?" Me: erm, a mangosteen ?  C: no.. It's purple .. Like Tinkie Winky .. Like this (he pointed to some purple thing).. Purple  Me: what's the color inside? C: White . Purple outside.  Me: mangosteen ?  C: no ! Purple.  Me : a grape ? The one that you peel the skin? C: no .. (Points to the stress ball) how can it be a grape ? That is small. (Gave me a super exasperated look ) It is round like this, round  like the Sun [i was secretly impressed with his comparatives] . And big.  Me : plum ?  C: no, that is blue. This is purple. Me: erm , it's purple on the outside but white on the inside. I don't know.. At this juncture, C got up and tried to go outside , he muttered , "I will go ask Ah Po"  To prevent the bedtime routine from extending further, I  quickly asked him to ask Ah Pa. Ah Pa asked him, "is it 山竹?...

At 32 months, he's more talkative than ever. And recently , he and a classmate started speaking some gibberish with the likes of "Ah ka wa ka .." When I asked him who taught him all these , he said he did. Not sure if he's speaking the truth but it's quite amusing though worrisome at the same time that he's weaving all these gibberish occasionally into his speech or songs on purpose. And he finds it funny so he would do it again and again.  Anyway, here's a more normal clip .. http://youtu.be/XnIBQo1BcYk

I don't know where he picked it up from but he likes to say "errr" nowadays .. It's not the hesitant "errr" but the affirmative "errr" .. I.e. If you ask him if he wants this, he will say "errr!" And this month , he continues to make many cheeky monkey faces and expressions. And he continues to create his own songs by fitting strange lyrics into regular tunes. The most gross one being ..  "This is the way I 挖鼻sai ， 挖鼻sai，挖鼻sai， all day long ... " Accompanied by action of digging his nose !  (To the tune of "this is the way") Recently , I saw that he was crossing out all the pictures in his book and was wondering why. His reply would be "Disney 有这样”. Then I realised that in one of the Disney English episodes of Arts and Crafts (his favourite), they taught kids how to draw Mickey Mouse. To get the proportion right, they will draw a cross first before drawing Mickey . That explains why h...

Today , Ah Pa was reading him stories before nap time and today he had the iPad beside him as he was trying to sneak a few clicks here and there to play the game. C: 阿爸，你不要一直玩iPad, 读一下按ipad .. 读一下按ipad . 你没有专心.. Though technology has its perils , today , he did score a few technology points recently. That day, he was having breakfast with Godma and friends. As he was eating the eggs, he said "E is for eggs". When he was quizzed on other alphabets, he managed to say them correctly ie A is for Apple, B is for ball etc. Finally, when asked who taught him all these, he proudly exclaimed "youtube!"  Guess we will be pulling out of preschool soon. Haha. 

Every day when I come back , I would ask him if he's a good boy. Did you hit anyone in school? Do you fight? (This is after he had a bout of fighting incidents in school) This week, he told me that he's a good boy and didn't fight.  When Ah Pa put him to sleep , Ah Pa asked him again in confidence : Pa: 今天有没有乖乖？ C: 有.. Pa: 真的吗？ C: 没有，没有乖..  Pa: 为什么? In a resigned tone and with a Singlish twang  C: 打架咯...  被老师罚咯  Pa: 跟谁打架?  C: 加君咯.. Asher 咯..  他们打我咯.... Not sure to what extent it's true Cox I've seen how he would initiate a fight when someone snatches his toy or intruded into his comfort zone. But we were just amused by the tonality of the entire conversation.  ----- That day Ah Pa locked the bedroom door to lay the Alphabet mat on the floor and thereafter, he went to bathe. As such, Cayen couldn't go in and he was slamming on the door and crying for quite a while for his Ah Pa to open the door.  ...

We parked at Far East Plaza carpark as Orchard road is blocked on the first Saturday of every month. As the carpark is very old, the lanes are very narrow at every turn and I was cringing and making funny noises after we spiraled downstairs as they all felt like close shaves as we were very near the walls. After a few turns, Ah Pa was quite annoyed as he noticed that Cayen was mimicking all the noises I was making .. He seemed to understand what I was apprehensive about. Actually, it was quite funny as his tonality was exactly like mine. After we finally emerged from the carpark, Cayen exclaimed "no more!" Cayen also received his Christmas present that evening so he was super exited to open them. I couldn't quite open so I had to look for my scissors to try cut them open. After cayen saw me cut open the present, thereafter when he had trouble opening the other present, he went through his stack of toys as he's trying to find something. After a while, he emerged triump...

Nowadays Cayen has surprised me with his newfound chinese vocab .. "阿婆不要转台" (he wants to watch his own program.. Namely Hi-5 and Baby Channel  "水撒在地上了” ..note that he used 撒instead of 倒 .. Chinese Teacher was reading to them some story and she paused to speak to english teacher Nana .. They chatted for a while. So Cayen exclaimed loudly,  ”陈老师不要再跟Nana 讲话了， 快点读书，你今天讲太多话了!" Teacher shared with us the story somewhat sheepishly.  ”大头大头下雨不愁人家有伞我有大头” he would recite this every time we have trouble pulling his shirt out as his head is in the way .. And we would tease him about his big head.  Cayen was trying to try get his Ah Pa to do some reading for the nth time and Ah Pa was trying to delay a little. Cayen was impatient and started to rattle while counting  "没有ice cream , 糖糖，Christmas tree, Gai Gai, juice, swimming, fountains ..." Yes, these are his favourite things and apparently Ah Pa used to  tell him that if he's not a good boy, he will lose all these ...

I'm impressed. I don't even know the lyrics to this song .. Except the first phrase as popularised by Stephanie Sun. YouTube Video - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last Friday , we went for dinner at this coffee shop  Tian Wai Tian Fishhead Steamboat. Apparently,  their Fishhead steamboat has been there for very long so my father brought us to try .. By the time we found parking, settled down and ordered,  it was already 7.30pm when the steamboat arrived. When the steamboat first appeared hot and steamboat, Cayen exclaimed excitedly "饭来了！ 饭来了！” . We were quite surprised as it's the first time he's so excited about dinner. Either he enjoys steamboat (this is not his first) or he was really hungry...  Anyway, the fishhead steamboat didn't disappoint ... After end of meal , he exclaimed with a satisfied "饭好吃！” I tend to agree too, as the accompanying dishes we ordered were as good as the steamboat itself, ie Har Cheong Gai, special tofu and vegetables with five bowls of rice and a couple of drinks. And the amazing thing is that the bill came up to only under $80 for 4 adults and 1 kid.  Will go again! 

Cayen is sprouting a lot of new words nowadays ... Sometimes I get it , most of the time I don't. So usually when I don't, I will ask Da "decode , decode". Today, once again cayen mentioned something that I didn't quite understand again. I stared at him blankly and he tried to repeat about 3-4 more times.  Finally, I gave up and turned to look at Da. Before I could utter anything, Cayen screamed "decode, decode!"  * stunned *  It's amazing the things they absorb without us knowing. 

阿爸过来陪我一起坐..阿婆坐那里.. ------- 我们每个人一杯..咖啡.. -------- 我们大家一起吃 --------- 阿婆，去后面看阿公做什么？ --------- Me: Cayen, if you throw things, what will happen ?  Cayen: beat people ! (?!?! I only threaten to 打， I don't believe I have introduced the word "beat" as yet )  ---------- Me: 天黑黑可不可以找阿婆？ Cayen: no , N , O , no  Me: 如果你找阿婆，会怎么样？ Cayen: 打 Me: 对, 妈妈不理你，不看你。 Cayen : 阿爸看cayen  Me: 阿爸也不看你。 Cayen : 阿公看cayen。 (Hahaha) 

Cayen's soliloquy while ah pa had a late night out .. C: 阿妈，找阿爸 .. me： 你躺，你躺，阿爸就回来了 (X 10 times) After 20 minutes .. When it looks like he's about to sleep .. He heard the door open .. He sprang up .. C: 阿爸回来了！ 阿爸回来了！ （x 5 times) Then ，阿爸 went to bathe .. C: 快点..阿爸快点！ 快点.. 一点..一点点..快一点..（x 10 times) C: 阿爸穿衣服.. C: 姨姨大便..（x8 times) ？！？ C: 阿爸冲凉，Mai ... (x 5 times) C: 阿爸穿衣服..穿滑滑 (x3 times) C: 阿爸开门，阿爸锁门 C：阿爸大便 ... Finally, 阿爸 came out .. If you are wondering what I was doing .. I was stoning after reading for 1.5 hours non stop since 10pm. I was too tired to pick up my phone to record .. For the record..he's still wide awake now, insisting for his ah pa to read to him. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Alamak : an act of exclamation ..Sometimes with exasperation That day he messed up the alphabets tiles at night and it was all in a messy pile. When he woke up the next morning to see that pile, he exclaimed "Alamak!" Whoa: to express an unexpected movement When ah Pa drives over a hump, cayen will say Whoa , just like how I usually do. "Oh oh !" when something drops to the floor ..for example food, spoon and forks etc "Baby..come inside...here" When telling the baby inside the deep pool to come on over to the baby pool where he is. "One only" I'm really surprised he knows how to use "only" .. "Ah pa, one more time .. Swim again" When requesting ah pa to swing him around in the pool ... "Bo (don't have in hokkien).. Missing ! When describing that something or someone is missing or not around. "Ah Yen Waiting" He seems to know when to add "ing" to certain Words. "Mai3 (don't want in Hok...

As he increases in his vocabulary, I am sensing an increased in his ability to carry a conversation and that includes making excuses . Here's some examples of what transpired in the last week.  Usually he wants to have his way and walk on his own without us holding hands. Today, he wanted to be carried but we were all quite tired. So we asked him if he could walk. He said "no, cars!" I looked up and indeed there were some cars in sight on the north bridge road but we were walking along the walkways of boat quay and those cars were so far away! Then it struck me that we always say there's cars, ah pa carry cayen. Hence, he probably feels that it's quite legitimate to quote cars as the reason to be carried!  Next, recently we try to teach him spelling. So it's N O , NO. And Y E S YES for a start. So nowadays, when he don't want something, he will retort forcefully with a N O NO. And if we still insist, he will say "I don't want". And when he wa...

Cayen's repertoire has increased a lot over the last few months .. Here's his newly acquired Hokkien  Bo2 Lang2: nobody  This is used when you asked if grandpa has any friends, he will reply Bo2 Lang2. Bo2 Liao4: no more This is used when something is finished.  Buay4 You2: apply oil  This is used when he is having wind or Pain in stomach and requests for us to apply ruyi oil.  Wu3: have (有） If we tell him no more orange juice or biscuits, he will say Wu3. Giap4: pincer grasp (夾） He will use his leg to Giap4 his bolster or his Ah Pa. Ai3: want (要）  That's if you ask him if he wants something or not .. (Ai3 Mai3?)  Suo1 Suo1: hot hot (烧）  This is said when his food is hot.  Ba4 ba4: meat  He wants this every meal. And I think he has influenced his friends in school. At the last mid autumn celebration involving parents, some kid was saying he wants ba4 ba4 to his parents who looked completely puzzled by the request. They don't know what Is...

That day , we were in the car with Z and as usual Cayen was fidgety. So in order to entertain him, we asked him to say 1 to 10 in English, Chinese, Japanese and Cantonese. Z (4 year old) was quite surprised and asked me with big innocent eyes, "is he Singaporean?" To which, we all laughed. Today Cayen was in good form so we asked him to perform again. He actually did and threw in a 小白兔 repertoire too. Haha. YouTube Video - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

While we have hoped to bring him up to be trilingual (English, Mandarin, Hokkien),  One would usually think he's  a hokkien baby.  That's not surprising given that his favourite word is Mai2 (no) and second favorite is Bo2 (don't have). Even the concerned teacher has asked me with concern what language we use at home. I said English, Mandarin and Hokkien. I don't think she buys it.  Today, I was somewhat vindicated.  Teacher told Ah Po that Cayen understands English quite well (duh?!) . While he is sprouting Hokkien usually , he actually understood their English instructions like put his legs down etc.  My own take is that he understands all 3 equally well as we have tested on various occasions. Eat = 吃 = jiak4 , no = 不准 = Mai3 . Only thing is that Hokkien comes the most naturally to him from a pronunciation point of view. He can speak English and Mandarin but those usually are pronounced more softly and in a more refined fashion, but not as accurate as Hok...

Cayen is finally knowing his ABC .. He can say A for Apple, B for Boy, C for Cat, D for Dog and after much prompting E for Egg. This took many days of training .. But I notice his Hokkien flair is much better . That day when I answered " ah ber " (not yet) to my mum , he repeated "ah ber" immediately. And today , when I said "Mai Bei" (don't climb) , he said "bei" immediately. And when my mum says "ai jiak" (want to eat?) , he will repeat exactly as well. Lastly, nowadays he will say "Mai mai" (no no) every time he want to say no ... This is one of the upsides of living with grandparents - flair in dialect. The very hyper baby ...