Here comes a post that was due 2 months back…
Dear baby,
Our past 2 months have been totally busy. The first month was all about shopping and packing for our India trip and the second was spent in India. I’m surprised what a difference one month can make in a person’s life.
The first thing you learnt while we were in India was aggression. Really, and more surprisingly, your father and I were happy about that…. Earlier we used to notice that you were one of the most soft spoken and gentle kids that we had ever seen. Yet you were one of the most active and smart too. But there was this brief time before our trip that we started getting worried that you were becoming rather too soft when we doubted that other kids of your age and older were easily manipulating you.
But you proved us wrong on the very third day of our trip that you learnt to be more aggressive and started defending yourself perfectly. I’m just happy that you can survive any situations that might call for.
We had a great time travelling and enjoying with the whole family. You enjoyed the bonds among the family, understood a whole lot and were perfectly amused by visitors and guests. Sometimes I feel that I should have chosen a lifestyle that would allow you to have more family bonds but what we have now if equally important too.
One lazy morning, you were trying to wake me up. You were actually very playful and when you saw that I was not going to get up that easily, you fished out a couple of words from your vocabulary that immediately popped me up in the bed. It was not easy to understand when you said ‘good morning sun shine’, just the way I have said for many mornings in the past when you were waking up.
I carried a few CDs for you while travelling because watching about 30 – 45 minutes of CD every day had almost become a habit for you. That one month helped creating your first real obsession, Barney the dinosaur. By the time we got back home after the month, I had become so cautious about using the name of Barney and friends because you would immediately want to watch it. I had been determined to let you watch only an hour of TV a day and any mentions of Barney after that and I’d have to take you out of the house to avoid watching more TV. But luckily we found Barney goodies from the store that softened the video craze a bit. In fact, things are much smoother now after your father and I have learnt to use Barney’s name to make you do things. Oh yeah, “let’s feed barney” and “let’s make barney sit down safely” would have you do the same too.
For the first time, we stayed for a whole week in India after your father returned to Singapore. Initial 2 days was very hard. You understood that your father had gone somewhere but you seemed to want him during bed time. During the day you were enjoying yourself and singing merrily but by bed time you missed him so much. But you were pretty matured enough for your age and you soon understood that your father had returned to Singapore where you were soon to reach. You seemed rather happy when we reached the airport and immediately waved good bye to your grandparents.
I sense a preschooler growing up in my house now that you have learnt to answer very schoolish questions like “what’s there in the sky”, “what do you see on the road”, “what’s there in the shop”. You have learned these by yourself. You have mastered identifying and naming shapes (except that you still say gangang for triangle and rangang for rectangle). You even attempt to draw and paint shapes. You use a paint brush, chalk piece, crayon or pencil to draw. You make round movements with your tool and call it a circle or oval and you name straight line movements as square (soiy), triangle, diamond or rectangle.
You are learning to read alone without me. Sometimes I don’t hear you for a long time and when I come in to check, I find you sitting with a book and quietly turning the pages and going through the pictures. But that doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t bug me to come read with you just when I’m doing something urgent at the computer. It’s just that you are learning to enjoy your independence.
Your passion for dance and music is growing. You love to dance everyday to some music which includes my funny singing. You try to sing real songs now. Most of the times, your attempt at your favourites rhymes is successful. You get the tune right even though you still can’t say all the words right. You can play harmonica with such continuity and grace like an expert, even though I know nothing about harmonica expertise. What I do know is, you play it at least as good as me or your father.
You are beyond the stage of learning the ‘first words’ and I believe you have entered the world of ‘secondary words’ as I choose call it. Like, you now know that every ball is different. You can say when you see a foot ball (shoot ball) and you know that you kick a foot ball. You know that you play throw and catch with a bouncy ball but I have a hard time teaching you that not every ball can be hit with a bat. You can say the difference between spoon and fork. You are learning opposites, like mom’s hair is long and your hair is short after a haircut.
Cooking has become another obsession for you. You want real vessels and the proper accessories that go with the dish that you pretend-cook just the way I use in the kitchen. Now you know how to make tea, dosa, omelette and more if I’m not wrong.
You know a great deal about gender. You say boy for male and girl for female. And if I ask you whether a person is boy or girl, you get just about everyone right.
You have recently learnt the joy of covering yourself in bed. You surprised me on the first night you told me to help me cover you with a blanket while in the past, all you had done was to kick the blanket out right from you first couple of days. You have also learnt to sleep on your own without much carrying around or singing. Sometimes you do ask me to sing ‘by-a-bye’ (lullaby) and you choose what I should sing and what not to. And you prefer to lie down on your warm and cosy bed for some time after waking up (as if you are taking rest from sleeping) before you gain lots of energy and jump out of bed.
And not to mention the day when you first let me know that your tooth hurt when you ate something sweet. We had noticed the cavities in your teeth for sometime but you surprised me by expressing clearly how it hurt. Every now and then, something gets stuck in your teeth and you ask me to clear it up. When I do, you say “bye bye” to mean that which was stuck had gone. Anything that is ‘gone’, has gone ‘bye bye’.
There are these times that you remind me that you aren’t a baby anymore. You behave so big-boyish that I have to pause and think who I am dealing with and then decide on my action.
