Favourite Video 2009

I love this video showing Reese eating his rice on his own. It's a big achievement for him being able to feed himself with very very little practice since the maid left. I love watching him eat because it will really wet your appetite and make you hungry!

Going to School Soon!

Ah... hard to believe that Reese will be attending school next week! Somehow I am not all excited like many parents do when their child first go to school! Mmmm... I need to get him a small bag to put in extra clothes, hanky, water bottle and perhaps some after school snacks.

So far, I merely mentioned to Reese that he will be going to playgroup school with new friends to play with. Will see his favourite teachers there. I told him now he is a big boy and will graduate to school. :) Didn't tell him that mummy won't be around with him but I am confident that he will be more than happy to play with his new friends and not missing mummy for 3 hours, 4 times a week. My decision to send him to playgroup school is so that he has friends to play with and not so much of academic learning. I will continue to homeschool him and hope I will do a good job! :)

Next year homeschooling will be slightly more intense with Reese using Sonlight P4-5 (Explore God's World). I think Reese is ready for slightly more academic learning. Planning to start him on hand writing (Hand Writing Without Tears series), more advance reading and math (Singapore math). I am lousy at arts and craft. Will have to work on that. Oh... will also start him on some music lessons once he is settled in school.

Anyway... 2010 is going to be a great year of learning for both Reese and me! Amen!

Toys...toys...toys....

Toys toys toys.... long ago I wrote a post about buying toys.... how I was controlling myself from buying too many toys... and now? Hubby and I are still buying toys! My living room is filled with toys... we decided to display most of his toys on mats so that he will pick them up and play! Most of the time, we parents will just put the kids' toys in baskets or store them away so that it will be neat but hey... I realised that many of the toys will continue to stay in storage.

We arrange most of his toys on a few colourful mats ( 3 metres long). After doing so, he regularly play with 'everything' he sees on the mats.

Most of the corners found in my living room are filled up with his toys...

From Legos to cars to blocks..... everything is on display in hope that he will play with them. :)

Will we stop buying toys? Wanted to...but hard to resist.... I mean...everything seems to benefit Reese... so how?

Mummy.... play with me!

Thomas collection is growing... not that Reese is obsessed but us parents...hahaha

See the train tracks (another 1/3 hidden from the picture)? it took up almost 1/3 of my living and dining area...

His Christmas present for this year... another Thomas and friends collection

and a pair of sneakers.

At 3 years 2 months and 25 days

First of all... A Blessed Christmas to everyone! It's Christmas day and it's now 6am. Can't sleep anymore and thought maybe it's time to update on Reese before I get too lazy again.

We had a quiet Christmas Eve this year. We went to Coca Restaurant for dinner and it was disappointing. The food quality has dropped. Then hang around 1U and took Reese to Toys R Us for some window shopping. Let him tried on a pair of roller stakes and guess what? he had so much fun in them that he refused to take them off! He has been asking for a pair of skate ever since he saw some kids skating at BSC rollerskate ring. He is somewhat fascinated with them. It was fun watching him enjoying himself so much with the skates and we were laughing non stopped with daddy trying to help him skate and he even insisted that we don't help him. He can't even stand..haha.. but he enjoyed the falling part! Crazy boy. That was our Christmas Eve. Tonight we will celebrate my Dad's birthday with a small family dinner. Reese can't wait to open his big present today. :)


Milestones

Reese is getting taller and probably heavier too. It's increasingly more difficult to carry him. These days... a stroller really is helpful to transport the sleeping fella! Most of his baby fat is gone and he no longer looks chubby, just solid. :) We just bought him a pair of sneakers and he now wears a size 12!

Food wise, will eat more variety. He can't take spicy food. His food portion now is mostly adult portion. He loves chicken rice. He will finish 1 bowl of rice with a drum stick and sometimes ask for more rice! When he takes noodles whether dry or soupy, he will finish the entire bowl minus the soup. He loves sweet and sour dishes. Will only take vegetables when hidden in his food. Still loves his fruits. Loves Chocolate (the only sweet we give him occasionally). Feeds himself 95% of the time. In fact, when eating out he will request to feed himself. So proud of him.


His vocabulary is constantly growing and now he uses words like artificial, silhouette, dismantle and able to tell you the difference between a condo and apartment.... He speaks in almost perfect sentences now. Speaks with a slight American slang. His pronunciation is very good. Talks non stop. He picked up some Hokkien from his paternal grandparents while we were away on holiday. Forgot most of his Mandarin words... haha.. no practice. Can say a few Cantanose and Bahasa words. Need to work on his Mandarin. Can do simple addition like 1+1, 1+2...1+14... can count to 100 with help. Haven't been teaching him lately. Too lazy. Will do a better job next year. Getting his next level of homeschooling books soon! Reese is not very interested in writing or drawing or colouring but I have been teaching him how to hold the pencil and he is a lefty! It's confirmed.

He is very active but we realized that he can't really kick or catch a ball well! Can run and climb very well. I guess we did not let him play outside the house enough. :) Got to work on that. Getting him the skates soon and also a bicycle. A boy needs to learn to be a boy isn't it?


He is much easier to discipline these days. Understand what punishment is and when threaten with that, he will stop his nonsense. We make him stand at a corner or take away certain favourite activities or things as punishment. Overall, he is considered a good boy. Most of the time he will not cause trouble. Still gets bullied by other kids every now and then and never fights back. Reverse psychology works very well with Reese.

Surprisingly, he rarely ask for TV these days. Most days he will play with his toys and books. On days we are home, I have to turn on the TV for him... mummy felt that he needs some TV time... haha. He loves building things and arranging things in rows or whatever he fancies. We make it a point to display most of his toys at his play area (1/3 of our living room!) so that he will play with them. My house really do look like a nursery. :)

Reese still takes a 1.5 -2 hours nap daily and goes to bed around 9.30am-10.30pm. He is an early riser. He wakes up between 7.00am-7.30am.


Reese still can't sing in tune. Hehehe... he loves to dance and enjoys adult music too. Will start him on some music lessons soon. Most probably the Yamaha children course.

He is a cheeky and happy boy. More friendly towards others and will greet others when asked. He is growing up well.

Child, Man and Woman...

Child: What is child doing?

Woman: Sitting in his carseat.

Child: What is woman doing?

Woman: Driving the car.

Child: Where is the man?

Woman: Man is at work.



Child: What is the child eating?

Woman: Cereal.

Child: What is woman doing?

Woman: Feeding the child.

Child: Where is the man?

Woman: Working!



My conversation with Reese lately. :)

Reese also started to ask WHY questions and answer them with BECAUSE...., he is exploring with the words BUT, SO and I THINK. He also uses the word WASTE like "I want to waste electricity", "I want to waste The Curve!" (Still not 100% sure what waste really means.. haha.. when we don't allow something.. he will say I want to waste....)

Some really long sentences that he is saying:

"I think the christmas trees at BSC is not lighted up."

"I wanna checked it out whether the christmas trees are lighted up at BSC."

"The white christmas tree is on top of Bangsar Village."

"The sun is going down. It's a sunset and so it's getting dark."

"Where is the KL Tower and Twin Towers? Oh no.. the haze blocked the KL Tower and Twin Towers. Got haze!"

"That is an artificial christmas tree and this is a real christmas tree."

"The Curve is closing and so must go home."

No time to give him any lessons except impromtu learning. One of them was taking him to the market at TTDI. A short visit (40 minutes) and he now can tell me what a butcher, florist, green grocer, fruiterer and a fish monger do. Going to the supermarket and letting him help with selecting fruits and vegetables... he learns alot more fruit and vege names. Effective learning when you have hands on experience! :)

Been busy with chores and getting used to the new routines. Reese has been good and learning to be more independent and playing alot on his own now. No need to constantly accompany him in his play but at times you can see that he is lonely and always excited to play with my younger students given a chance. For now, we are happy with him only and have no plans to have a second one in the near future. Hope having new friends at school next year will keep him happy and less lonely. :)

Being Independent

Now that we do not have a maid, Reese is being trained to be more independent. He is feeding himself during most meals including soupy food. He learns fast and hardly spills or drops anything.

Yesterday I 'asked' for his help to do some laundry and he gladly helped. He helped me take the laundry basket out, take out the clothes from the dryer, fold up the clothes and put the clothes into their respective drawers in the cupboard. He truly enjoyed himself and we did everything in 20 minutes. I had fun too, we talked and laughed alot.

He also started to keep his toys on his own once in a while after play. He is getting there. :)

You know, in a way... Reese has become our mini maid! Because all these experiences are new to him, he just gets excited in doing them all the time! He will help put our dirty clothes into the laundry basket and take this and that to us when requested. Hope this will last... hahaha

Really proud of him that he is willing to learn and do some simply chores. He has always been pampered to the max and now he just adapt so quickly, it's quite amazing.

We are definitely happier than before. I especially love the time I spend with him in the car every day. We make silly sounds and songs, we laugh alot and I can be myself totally. Love it.

Maid gone and we are glad!

Phew... after coming home last Thursday night from our holiday, I was busy with chores and getting things in order without the help of a maid. So busy and just no time to blog...actually there is but too tired to do so. :)

When I found out my maid ran away... I was shocked. Then I sat down on the hotel bed and started thinking... what now? Immediately we arranged to Skype with my parent's in-law to get some things done and after all that I was actually feeling good! No more maids (unless I am pregnant again) for us! Indonesian maids really cannot be trusted no matter how high their salary is and how well you treat them. I am one of the naive ones who thought that by treating her well and giving her a premium salary I will be assured of her services and no running away problem.... well I am dead wrong. I will never trust a maid again. Ever. They are just so disappointing. Not to mentioned that my ran away maid was an expensive maid to maintain. She is petite in size but her appetite was like a horse. As an example she takes 4 to 6 pieces of bread for breakfast! Takes 4 meals a day. She was also wasteful in things that she uses. Ah... so many things to complain but I will spare all of you! :)

Anyway, with her gone, one less person to feed and supervise and most importantly we have our privacy and freedom back!

The past few days went by so quickly! Hubby and I was busy doing all the chores and it was exhausting but we are not complaining. Hubby is the happiest because his dream came true... no more maids! Ha... :)

To reduce the chores, we started to lower our standard of cleanliness like only sweeping and mopping twice a week and avoid opening the windows and doors too much. No more steaming of Reese's drinking bottles (about time). No more ironing of house clothes.

As for me working and handling Reese at the same time, I am getting there. We are training Reese to feed himself. So far so good. He is able to do so but needs supervision. It's ok, at least I don't have to feed him and while I teach, my dad can supervise his feeding. I have to plan his meals properly and have them cooked ahead of time and it must be food that he can easily feed himself. Next year Reese will be going to playgroup kindy for 3 hours 4 times a week and that will be much easier for me. We will hire a part time maid to clean my parents place while keeping an eye on Reese on one of the days when I am out the whole day teaching. My father is always around to watch over Reese but he has mobility issues (suffered a stroke many years ago) and thus cannot do many of the physical things for Reese.

Since Monday, my daily routine is something like this:

Get up at about 6am, prepare and pre cook Reese's lunch, pack all the necessity for the day to bring to my parent's place. Give Reese his breakfast, brush his teeth and change him. Do some cleaning here and there and then drive Reese to my parents place or the office depending on the day. If at the office, Reese will play while I work for a couple of hours. In between got to make sure he is not creating a mess or being too mischievous! Feed him his lunch and then back to my parents place. Give him a shower and then my dad will watch over him while I clean up after his shower. If I have a class, I will teach else I will sweep and mop my parent's place (1 to 2 times a week). Then get Reese to take his nap if my dad can't get him to do it. After that, back to more teaching and by the time I finished all my classes, time to give Reese his dinner and then prepare to go home. Get home have dinner with hubby, rest for a while or more chores and then get Reese ready for bed and by this time, I will also sleep.... so tired.

So far, I can still manage. Hopefully after a week, I will be more efficient. Hubby is also helping out with the chores even thou he is dead tired after work but at least we are happy.