The boys has a new game. They take all our cushions, big and small, plus their own pillows, stack them all up and try to hide under it! When asked what they were hiding from, they said “pa pa!”. 🙂 Might sound silly to some, but they had such fun. Lots of laughter.
It was early morning. I was in the bathroom when I thought I heard Calvin talking to his brother in their room (their room is right next to the bathroom). It sounded like Calvin was instructing Athan to do something. Then I heard “then you put your leg over like this …”! And, I was alarmed!
Mr C was giving Mr A instructions to climb down from his cot! Before I could rush to their room, I heard a big loud thud on the floor followed by screaming. I was too late. Mr A has fallen from his cot while trying to climb down. Thank God he did not hurt his head or had any serious injury except for his left leg that had hit a toy truck which was on the floor. No damage done. I was relieved and very thankful.
After much *interrogation* by the husband, Mr C admitted to instructing Mr A to climb down from his cot. He obviously did not realise the danger. All he wanted was for his brother to come down from his bed and play with him. He was very very sorry, we could see that on his face. He even promised he won’t do it again.
After thought: I guess it is time to move Athan to a mattress on the floor like Calvin. This will prevent future problems. Yes, we still keep Athan in his cot (mean parents :)).
After the drama, it was back to our busy morning routine. As for our Mr A, he was back to his usual happy self. 🙂
Calvin’s Valentine’s Day craft from school.
This was what Calvin presented me (it was also for the father) when I picked him up at school yesterday. At a closer look, I think I love what he has done!
I was quick to ask him how he made the big heart, in particular how he managed to glue all the little pink muffin cases on it. After much pestering from me, the boy told me that everyone had to make one for their parents. First, they had to cut the big heart shape from an outline on paper. Then they painted the heart red followed by decorating it in whatever manner they wished. He chose to glue the cases along the outline of the heart but apparently the darker pink cases ran out and so he had to use the light pink ones. And, he emphasised that he thought of the design and he glued the cases all by himself. I was proud of him. Really. He has done such a great job. He has a good sense of colour as well, I think. He probably has inherited this trait from the father. 🙂
This year’s Chinese New Year happens to fall on the same day as Valentine’s Day. What a coincidence. Celebrations over here is limited. I missed all the good times I had during Chinese New Year when I was growing up in Singapore. I wish one day the boys can get to celebrate this festive season in Singapore and Malaysia. We do still try our best to celebrate over here with our chinese friends. We have two dinners lined up this weekend – one at R’s sister home and the other with church friends. I am looking forward to all the good food and company. 🙂
Here’s wishing all our chinese friends and family a very Happy Chinese New Year! Hope you all have a great time with family.
It was late afternoon. Time to go to the park for our exercise. The husband wasn’t going as he had to go to a meeting at church later in the evening. And, I was feeling tired and …. lazy. :) So, I sent the boys to the backyard. They were just as happy — Calvin on his bike and Athan on his “Radio Flyer” car. I was with them for most of the time until I had to prepare their dinner. I could still see them from the kitchen window — something that I love about our home. 🙂
The boys were having fun amusing themselves with silly little games that they invented and running after the *poor* birds that stopped by. I could hear their talking and laughter where I was standing. It was all good, until I could no longer hear them chatting away. This could either mean the two monkeys were getting into mischief things or they had found something interesting to look at. It was the latter.
I saw them squatting on the paved area looking at something and I really wondered what they have found. So, I decided to go out quietly with my camera. This is what I managed to capture before the battery went flat:
Caterpillar (trying to escape) on a leaf from the lemon tree.
Unfortunately, this is the only shot I managed to get …… anyway I found out that the boys were looking at a hairy caterpillar. Calvin had plucked a leaf from the lemon tree *to feed* it. :) The poor caterpillar was trying to escape while the boys kept trying to keep it on the leaf. They even asked me why it was going away all the time! How cute. I just love how little things can intrigued the boys so much. I reminded them of one of their favourite books, “The very hungry caterpillar” and the respond I got was “mama, I think the caterpillar is going to look for chocolate cake!”. That was from Calvin. If you have read the book, you’d know what he meant. 🙂
Athan started his 3-year-old kindy class today! I think I am more excited than him. 🙂 I’ve been prepping him the whole of yesterday, trying to get the idea into him. His response has been very positive each time we mention “school” to him. Methinks he wants to be like his older brother who goes to school everyday now. He wants to go to school too — he calls his school “little school” with little kids while his brother’s school is big school with big kids. How cute.
We were ready for school early in the morning. We even have time for a picture! Here it is:
Boys before going to school.
The plan is for R to drop Calvin while I drop Athan. I have told Mr A many times that I would only stay with him for 5 minutes and then I have to leave. He seemed to be happy with that. HOWEVER, what does a 3-year-old know about time? Five minutes could mean the whole time in class! I was prepared for him to scream.
When we arrived at his classroom, the teacher immediately recognised the similarities between Calvin and Athan. She was amazed at how much Mr A has grown. Well, the last time we saw her, Athan was still just over 1 year old. Still very much a baby. Athan was very conscious of his new surroundings and he made sure he stayed by my side all the time. I sat with him for a while playing with the train set. When I said I had to leave, he refused to let me go. I knew it would be hard to leave him if I stayed longer and so I made the decision to make an early exit. The teacher came, took Athan, I said my goodbye, reassured him I would come pick him up soon and I left. The boy cried, but only for a very short time, less than 5 minutes. He did not scream. What a surprise! I was relieved. Thank God.
When I picked him up later, he was all smiles and said he wanted to go school again. I think he is proud that he is going to school now. 🙂
Truth be told, I was pretty nervous last night about Athan going to school. I just couldn’t bear the thought of my *baby* going to school! At one stage, I was trying to find excuses, any excuse that could give me a reason to withdraw him. I was thinking something like …. he’s still too young, too short, too not ready, too tired….etc. How crazy is that? The husband dismissed all my *crazy* excuses and made me face reality. He’s right yet again.
Well, after seeing how Athan has reacted to his new kindy class, I am much more relieved. He might cry next week, but I know his teachers can handle him. The hope is that this 3 year old kindy will help Athan adjust to school routine when he starts real school next year.
The new term of school has finally started for Calvin. He just can’t wait to go to school! I pray and hope he will feel the same way about school 5 years later. 🙂
He is in pre-primary this year, just next door to his previous class. He can still see his former teachers whom he loves. In fact, he kept saying he wanted to go back to Mrs D’s (kindy teacher) class! Thank goodness his friends from last year are all in the same class as him this year. This helps. To help the children adjust to the new routine (5 full days of school now) as well as helping the teachers to get to know them better, the class has been split into 2 groups on the first day of school. The first group has the morning session while the second has the afternoon session. Calvin has been assigned to the afternoon session (12.30pm – 3.10pm).
We were nice and early on the first day of school. He was excited, but went all quiet when we met his new teachers Miss B and Mrs J. He was quietly observing his new teachers and new environment — very typical of Calvin (he has been this way since he was a baby). When the bell rang, a cue for the parents to leave, I looked at my boy who looked back at me and said “I won’t cry, mum”. He seemed to know I was going to ask him whether he was going to cry. I felt very emotional at that moment and at the same time, I was so proud of my little boy! He seemed to have grown up all of a sudden. I knew he would do just fine in his new class and I left.
The rest of the week will be half-day school, slowly building up to full day every day over the next 2 weeks. I know Calvin will take time to adjust to his new routine, he will be quiet for the first term, he probably will be teary at times when I leave him etc etc. BUT I also know that he will eventually get used to the new routine, new teachers, new classrooms and make new friends. If you can, do pray for my little boy. Thanks.
 p.s: I did not take any photo because I have left the camera R’s car!