Potty chair

I walked him to the park this morning, followed by shopping in Westfield. I let him choose a potty chair and he selected the one with Pooh Bear, Tigger, Eeoyre and piggy. He sat on the potty chair in the shop without much complaint so I bought it for him. This is the 4th potty we have, the other ones he has been refusing to sit on them, he is very strong when struggling and wriggling around refusing to sit on the other potties that not even two adults can hold him down. I brought it home and managed to get him sit on it fairly easily. (picture skipped!) I think it will be at least weeks or months before he can fully automatically do his business at will but I will try my best to train him this summer. This potty chair is quite cute, it makes a flushing tune.

I was rejected by this kindergarten quite sometime ago, suddenly I received their call saying one of the parents had given up their child's place, so I accepted the offer. Jasper will start next January for three days a week full time. (yes, its a long wait!) It is a Japanese kindergarten, he will learn Japanese there, or if not, it doesn't matter, it will nourish his intellectual development. I just thought he has learnt enough Cantonese and English for his age, exposing him more to an English speaking environment will cause language imbalance between Cantonese and English, so I thought why not a third language?!

playgroup

The carer who used to look after Jasper has declared retirement due to health problems. Jasper will go to another daycare place from early next month. Until then, he has no where to go to but local parks and playgroups.

Jasper was begging for bed tonight... "want bed"... more wingeing.. "want bed!".. etc. We skipped his bath then.

Monday... Saturday; 9 o'clock

I walked him to the park today and when I got near to the post office he said "mummy is going to post letters", I was just shocked! I then said to him "finished posting letters" when done.

Then we walked past the place where the "tuesday" playgroup is held, he dragged my arm saying "want go playgroup" (he recognised the building from across the road!). I explained to him that playgroup is closed on Monday... he didnt understand until I let him see through the window to see it all dark inside without anyone. As soon as I got home I told him these - monday: go Chatswood park, Tuesday: Masako playgroup, Wed: Music group, Thurs: Kids Cottage playgroup, Fri: Ivette's group, Sat: High school park ... he understood it straight away and having fun reciting it. We are delaying his time table till 9pm because he has been waking us up early for the last few days. I asked him "what time is it ?", he replied "nine o'clock", I went "bed time". Same correct answer for both English and Chinese. As of today, he can only read 9 o'clock from the clock.

A note on his sleep routine: it is SO SO easy no one would believe ... I don't have to say one word because as he is lying down in bed, he said "lie down", then when I try to carry out the act of covering him he says "cover quilt", then he said "close eyes" himself. I just say kiss goodnight and bye. Amazing...

Pictures from the playgroup last thursday:

26 weeks+... walking the street

I let Andrew walk Jasper from home to the bakery this afternoon. Though I walked him a few times without any problems I am not sure how he walks with Andrew so I put on his walking harness so that Andrew can clip on the strap when he needs to. Jasper is getting better in holding hands these days and he stops at traffic lights, he can control himself to continue hold hands without much complaints. He obeys the commands "stop", "wait", "hold hands". Those are the most important commands for a toddler to learn for the parents to take him out without using a stroller. Other toddler girls I know of can walk the street around 18-20 months but Jasper has been 10 times more adventurous than others.

Music group today

I walked him from the Westfield carpark to the local post office yesterday, then we went to the bakery and then back to the carpark. The whole trip took half an hour. He did not try to shake my hand off and was holding hands really well, he stopped at the traffic light and waited, didn't squirm, didn't drag his body around or fight with me. This was the first time I could hold his hand peaceful and walked the whole trip. I guess he has grown up a little bit.

He woke up earlier than we do just like most of the other days, then climbed onto our bed and said "how many teeth andrew has ?" while peeling open andrew's lips to count the teeth "one, two, three.... " ... other things he has said include "where is andrew ?" "andrew has gone to work", "where is

I was going to take him to the library this morning to attend the story time at 9:30 or 10:30am but then I met two friends on the way who changed my mind to go to the music group instead. He seemed to like the group very much...they have a very casual setting where everyone are listening to the music and songs in the small room, followed by a morning tea session and finally the play session. We saw at least half a dozen friends that we know from other groups that was quite a good opportunity for me to catch up with them. After the music group, I had no problem holding his hand and walk him home, then we had lunch at home, and he is now in dream land.

Health check with paedetrician

I took him to have a health check with a paedetrician today, she gave me some suggestions to improve his self-control and conformance. He weighed in at 14.5 kgs today, height 90cm.

Lunch ... bought a train set

Lunch has been very simple for him, pasta, bread, ham, egg, cheese, salad (or bak choy).


Note: When he plays alone, he always says a little dialogue "where is xxx ?", "over there."... or "what's that ?", "its a xxx ".

I bought a portable train set for him. If we had space for a train set table I would have got it, but instead, I bought a portable set which is a very basic set with all its components tucked inside a carry case. It comes with a water proof play mat, rail pieces, bridges, 2 train carts and some wild animals.

He can carry out simple instructions such as coming to my room and get the paper rubbish to the kitchen, open the lid of the bin and throw the rubbish in the bin. We sometimes find things that are not supposed in the bin, such as very small toy pieces.

Bed time is now a true breeze for me now. It only ever takes a little over 10 seconds or so. "Go climb up to the bed", "lie down", "mummy is covering the quilt now", "close your eyes". Then I just leave the room. That's it. The routine is so simply that it is hard for anyone to believe unless you see it filmed. He doesn't climb down the floor once he is in bed with his eyes closed. When he wakes in the morning, he climbs off his bed to the floor and runs to our room to wake us up.

converted his cot to a toddler bed

I bought a pair of wooden bed rails, I removed ONE side of the cot and replaced it with the wooden rail. Was going to replace both sides and turn the whole cot into a toddler bed but i wasn't sure how Jasper will adapt, so decided to only convert one side of the bed and leave the other side intact. The new cot rail is actually quite low, just a little higher than the mattress to prevent him from rolling out, and it is safer for him to climb in and out of the bed. Maybe I will install the other bed rail in due course. I hope he will get used to the idea very soon and i will then get a normal single bed for him.

BEFORE & AFTER

completing the clown puzzle

He can finish the clown puzzle with very little help ....

going to bed willingly

We brought Jasper's bedtime from 8:30pm to 9:45pm, we felt he was tired enough to go to bed without much complaint. I asked him "do you want to go to bed ?", "D'you want mummy open the door ?". As soon as I opened the door, he ran to his cot, climbed in and lied down. He didn't climb out of the cot tonight at all though he insisted having the light on. We will just have to turn off the light when he is completely asleep. I put a baby gate on his bedroom door, he can't go out of his room and in case he climbs out of the cot, he will have a choice to climb back in at his own time. Again, I will only remove the gate from his bedroom door when he is completely asleep.

He understands very basic past tense and can carry on a very simple conversation. When he is asked "what have you eaten today?" (in cantonese), he would return a few sentences in Cantonese "I ate(have eaten/had) cornflake", "ate apple", "drank milk", "ate biscuit" ... etc.

Attached pictures... he is very good at climbing now....

removing the "pen"

This day has finally come .... we had to remove the baby fence installed in our living room during the last year. He was able to climb over the long fence and is almost good enough to pull himself up and over the baby gates. There is no more giant "playpen". Our living room has no fence now and he can run freely everywhere, plus he can climb in and out of the cot freely.

We delayed his bedtime for an hour later than usual, I then asked him to climb in the cot... I quietly observe him from outside the bedroom door, I then told him off as soon as he attempted to lift his leg over the cot rail, he lied down again. He got told off when trying to leg over, a few times later he's off to dreamland ...

worst days !!

He has been climbing in and out of the cot like nothing. In fact, once he climbed it once, he kept doing it like as if he practised for some exam or something. He is so quick now, he is in the cot within a few seconds and out the next second. We had a lot of trouble settling him to sleep which we have never had before. Last night we couldnt settle him until after 10pm, he kept climbing out. This afternoon (sat) he kept climbing onto our double bed and then SLEPT there for 2 hours. We are very close to thinking of buying either a bedrail(again) for the cot, buy a toddler bed or go straight to a single bed.

climbing in and out of the cot

We have 2 cots, a fabric portable cot that we use very sparingly; and a solid wooden cot that we use almost everyday. Before we realised it, he was in the cot! Andrew thought I put him in the cot but I didn't, somehow he managed to climb in. This happened a few days ago... we put him in the same bedroom as ours just for the night because he wasn't well, and we had to use the portable cot in our bedroom because the wooden cot wouldnt fit through a standard doorway unless dismantled. The next morning we found him jumping up and down on our mattress messing around - he could climb in and out of the portable cot freely and easily. So we put the portable cot away and let him sleep in the wooden cot in his own bedroom again. It is obvious that he has grown out of the portable cot, now he is climbing in and out of the wooden cot.... what do we do ?! Not that we mind his climbing up and down but the potential danger of fall that may result from climbing. Our wooden cot has passed Australian Safety standard, the side rails are higher than the lowest point of my rib cage. There are still a lot of clutter we dont want him to touch in his bedroom (and elsewhere in the house!). We have fenced off the living area but he has been attempting to climb over the "fence" trying to go over the pen area ... Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!