Guess what the boys are doing? Well, they are pretend-playing.  They are pretending to be rowing their boats in the sea!

Each boy is sitting on a bag of blocks — that’s their boat. Each has a fishing-rod — that’s their oar. As for the sea …. well, they have thrown all their toy crabs, ducks, crocodiles on the floor…. that’s the sea! What imagination they have.

By the way, I have to thank my sister in Singapore who have bought them the fishing set (actually she bought 2 sets so that they won’t fight. How nice).

Calvin was really looking forward to me helping out in his kindy class at school. Well, today happened to be the day I am rostered to help out.  My little boy was so happy to have me in his class.  He did not mind me being there nor was he conscious of my presence.  He was himself.  That was good.

It was my second time helping out and so I roughly know the routine.  Today, I did lots of cutting and was in charge of a table — 4 kids per table.  We were making paper chickens! Wished I had brought my camera …. anyway, the process involved cutting and gluing.  Most of the kids are good with scissors skills and gluing, but when 4 of them asked for help at the same time, I was a little nervous.  Thank God that the children were happy to wait for their turn to be helped.  I helped to make 20 paper chickens! 🙂

I also helped supervise the kids when they played outside.  They had so much energy.  Calvin ran around non-stop with his friends — he is either on the bike or running around or at the slide.  He has made more friends this term and is playing a lot better with the others.  There was not a moment when he was alone — he was able to join in a group of children who were playing.  That is such a progress from last term when he was a little shy and unable to join in a crowd without help.

He is still rather quiet in class especially when the teacher asks questions.  He is never one of those who put up his/her hand or one of those who shouts out the answer.  His teacher has to get him to speak up each time.  I guess this is his personality, but I think he will improve as he gets even more comfortable with his teacher and friends.

I had a really time helping out at the class.  It is such good opportunity to see how the class is being conducted and how the teachers teach the children and of course, I get to see my little boy in action. I think we have to work on the husband to volunteer himself next term.  I am sure Calvin will love that! 🙂

On the home front, Calvin is doing great.  Of course he has his moments, but for most of the time, he is quite well behaved and reasonable.  He is not as stubborn as before in that he can take no for an answer and is happy to accept an alternative suggestion.  I find reasoning with him is far better than just time him out when he first misbehaved.  He can actually explain himself given some patience.  I find it a good opportunity to correct his thinking too.  It takes a lot of patience and time, but it is worth it.

He still loves playing with his blocks and cars.  He enjoys reading books too and can remember a lot of details — because he can re-read the same book for the whole week! The one thing that I have no success with him yet is getting him to sit down and learn to write. He has no interest at all! I try to make it interesting, but he can only sit for 10 minutes.  He does ask for paper and crayon — more so these days as he enjoys scribbling/drawing.  We can’t quite tell what he is drawing but he can sure tell us what he has drawn!

He has a l0ve-hate relationship with Athan.  We know he loves Mr A, but he also fights a lot with his brother.  I guess it is a learning process for the two boys to realise they are brothers and they have to love each other.  Sharing a room helps, I think.  They do seem to enjoy having each other in the room.  They play and chat in the morning when they wake up and they always have a little chat before going to bed.  Sometimes they argue, sometimes they laugh and sometimes they just talk. We love to stand outside their door and listen to their comversation.  Calvin tends to talk like *ahem* me, mothering Athan while Athan responds with “oh…ok”. Or he would answer with a big “NO” and that’s when argument starts.  kids….

Calvin is still a good eater, thank God.  He loves fruits. All types of fruit, I would say.  He is game to try new food which makes it a lot easier when we are travelling. I think he is on a growth spurt this week because he has been eating like a horse — a lot more than usual.   We just feed him when he asks for food! 🙂

In a few months’ time, Calvin will turn 5! How time flies.  I love to go back to our family photo archives to look at his baby pictures.  I really have forgotten those times.  Thank God that Robin had videos of Calvin (and Athan) when he was a baby.  Those are really priceless moments.  Something to treasure. Something to smile at.

The two boys have been fighting for toys and attention the whole day long. Stacking the blocks together was perhaps the only activity that they enjoyed together without much drama. *sigh*

Athan seemed to have somewhat settled since his last outburst of emotions, but he has been very clingy for some reason.  I had my mother’s group meeting this morning and he was absolutely behaving like a koala bear, clinging to me as if I was the eucalyptus tree! It was hard to hold him and appease him while joining in discussion with the other mums.  Perhaps there were more people at our home that made him clingy or ….. I really had no idea.  He played rather well with the other kids when I met up with the mums on different occasions, but today was just not his day.  He was just difficult to handle. Anyway. The good news is that he began to show his usual self after dinner.  He did not cling to me or requested to be held.  After dinner, he was eager to play with his brother — they invented a new game. 🙂 I hope he will be his usual self from now on.

Athan is doing great at day care. Well, he does not cry anymore when we leave him with his carers and he is usually happy when I pick him up after work.  He seemed to have have found his place there and is comfortable with the carers and kids around him.  He has also picked up some English words and he is able to understand simple instructions in English.  I think it is only a matter of time before he can communicate in English with someone.

He definitely has a mind of his own.  When he does not want something, it takes a lot of effort to change his mind. Stubborn? Perhaps.  He is also very cheeky and full of mischief — maybe this is why he is quite fun to be with. 🙂

He is a taxi spotter — he loves to look out for taxi on the road when we are out and about and will shout “taxi!” when he spots one. He also look out for fire engine, police car and ambulance.  These vehicles can get him very excited if he spots one. Typical boy thing, I guess.

He is speaking in sentences these days — in Mandarin. He is doing very well in the speech department. He loves to talk — that helps. 🙂 He talks to himself a lot and loves to ask “ni zhuo shen me?” (what are you doing). Some times during nap time, we can actually hear him talking to his bear and toy and himself before he eventually falls asleep.  He chats with me in the car too, all the way from day care to home which is about a 30 minute drive if traffic is bad.  He asks me about anything and everything that he sees on the road and I will ask him about his day.  Cute. 🙂

He is well into his “terrible twos” I have to say.  We have been through a lot of unreasonable times with him that comes with tantrums and screaming.  We are looking forward to him getting over this phase and become more *mature*, well at least more reasonable.  At the meantime, we have to be patient and loving. This is part of being a parent.