Mommy's Diary
Month 17 - Loving to read - Learning poems - Chase and catch - Emergency Room - Speaking in sentences
June 10, 2000
These days Tiger really enjoys reading. He will bring his books to me, and as soon as I take the book from him, he'll sit down on the floor and ready to read the book with me. He would point to the things he knows and say their names and point to those subjects he doesn't know the name and ask me to tell him. He especially loves any magazines or flyers with cars. Of course he considers anything with tires a car. Yesterday when I drove him to the store, he was reading an ad sheet very diligently all by himself all the way. It is so funny to see.He has learnt four Chinese nursery ryhmes now. If you say a sentence, he will fill in the last one or two words. One ryhmes is "Little bee, wong wong wong, fly to east, fly to west, fly into a flower, collect honey for the winter." Tiger's little bee used to only fly to west. When you say "fly to" he'll say "west", for both sentences. But he gets them right now. Another poem is "Rock and Rock, Paddle to Grandma's bridge, Grandma call me good baby, I give Grandma a big smile. Grandma gives me a cake, and I say Grandma you are so nice."
Tiger likes to repeat the last word of everybody. Sometimes when he is busy playing you can get him to say anything carelessly. He wouldn't even raise his head but the answers will knock you off. One day his daddy and I were playing with him and I said: "Tiger, who is nicer to you, daddy or mommy?" He says "mommy." Then Fan said: "Who do you like the most, mommy or daddy?" He says "daddy." We all laughed loudly. Sometimes you can really have some meaningful communications with him. It feels so great when Tiger understands me and gives me an answer. While other times, you thought he was giving you an answer but he was not. He loves to shake his head and says "Uh-un" (means no). Once I asked him, "Are you full up?" He said with his head shaking "Uh-un." "Do you want some more milk?" "Uh-un." "Do you want some fruit?" "Uh-un." "Do you want some vegi?" "Uh-un." "Do you want some beef?" "Uh." Then he got impatient, and screamed and then grabbed the milk cup from my hands and drank it all up.
The game Tiger likes to play the most is "chase and catch". Whenever I want to give Tiger something or put something on him, such as a bib, or his shoes, or whenever I want to take something from him, such as something he shouldn't have, he runs away laughing so fast. If you don't chase him, he'll come back to get your attention. He'll say "Mee!" and stand two feet from you, ready to run away anytime. Sometimes I think he is really a naughty boy. I wonder if I can still control him when he is a little older. Sigh!
June 10, 2000
We've bought a toilet seat for Tiger for about two weeks now. The first time he saw it, he flipped it bottom up, and took it apart to the smallest units. Ever since then he has enjoyed taking the top out and put it back on. Last weekend, however, he went on and sat on it all by himself. I'm really happy. Maybe it won't be too long before Tiger's being toilet trained. One problem though, the toilet seat is too high for Tiger. His feet can't touch the floor when he is sitting on it. I think it can't be comfortable this way. Maybe this means Tiger is too little for toilet train.Last night Tiger didn't nurse. This is the first time in his life that he didn't have to nurse for at least once. He woke up a couple of times, and was able to get back to sleep without a fuss. I'm pretty happy for him. Every baby has their own pace of developing. Tiger has been advanced in so many aspects. But he has never really been ready to wean from nusing. I love nusing him. I think I will nurse him until he is ready to stop himself. But I'm really happy that he finally got to the point that he doesn't need to nurse to go back to sleep.
June 16, 2000
Yesterday after we finish bath, I put Tiger on his toilet seat and he sit there for quite a long time. It seems that he is quite comfortable with it. He sat there and picked up the newspapers that his daddy left on the floor and read it. I just want to laugh. Isn't he a little too young to start this bad habit of his daddy's (reading newspaper when potty)?June 20, 2000
We had a scare last Friday. When I got home I was told that Tiger was in the emergency room with his daddy and grandma. I rushed to ER and was told that grandma thought that Tiger had taken one of her high blood pressure pills that she spilled to the floor several days ago. He cried hard at dinner, and fell asleep immediately in her arms. They went through a bunch of examinations, collected urine, draw blood, etc., ect. But thankfully they didn't find anything. Tiger was very mad during the entire process and screamed whenever a doctor or a nurse went close to him. We had to wait until 9pm for the test results. I hate that we had to let poor Tiger suffer all these. However, it is so important to make sure that he is alright. I just hate that this would happen. How I wish I can be there with him all the time.Then Sunday afternoon, when we invite a friend's family over, Tiger became very clingy to me. First I thought that he didn't had enough sleep. He uses to nap for about 3 hours but we were runing late shopping so he didn't have his lunch until 2pm and had napped only for 45 minute when the guests woke him up. Then I noticed that his temperature is rising. Sunday night I didn't sleep much. Tiger's temperature rose to 102.6. I'm so happy I'm still nursing him. He wouldn't eat or drink because he was so uncomfortable. But when I nurse him, he felt so much better. He actually was talking and laughing with me.
Tiger has not been sick very often. This is the third time he's been sick. I don't know if it's related to Friday's ER stay. He may have got some virus from the ER. I stayed home on Monday and spend the entire day with Tiger. I feel so much better when I was with him. I just hate when something happens and he was under control of somebody else. Somehow I think I would deal with the matter much better than anybody else. Anyway, Tiger recovered quickly. He was fine last night, and this morning. He is just too strong to be sick for too long. Actually he played like usual yesterday morning.
June 29, 2000
When children developed a love of reading, you just have to admire their persistence. Tiger can read a book back and forth for twenty times in a row and is still not tired of it. Sometimes I have to remind myself to show the same excitement as he does when we read a book for the 21st time. It is simply amazing.June 30, 2000
Tiger now has grasped Chinese grammer structure pretty good. About a week ago, when you ask him any questions that starts with "who", he wil answer "Hu" (Tiger). For example, if you ask him "Liu Fan is whom?" He will say "Ba Ba" (daddy), but if you ask him "Who is Liu Fan?" He would say "Tiger". Well now he understands both ways are the same question and he will answer it right.He is also trying to speak sentences rather than words. He has not been successful yet. For example, he would say "Mama Nainai" and some other words that is totally unrecognizable in one sentence and give me a book. It sounds like he is calling me and grandma, but I know that he wants to say "Mama Niannian (read)". I guess he hears we speak in sentences so that's what he does too. Even if you can't tell what he said, well, he speaks in sentences and that's what's important!
July 3, 2000
I baught a pair of new sneakers for Tiger from Payless online store. It is size 6w, very cute. Tiger loves it. The first day he had them on, he actually cried when I try to get them off his feet. I remember he had a hard time to wear shoes when he was little. How time changes! Although I think he was crying probably because those shoes are not comfortable and this one must be both cool and comfortable for him.Last night Tiger had a good time with Qin, Li and their seven year old son BiXi. BiXi gave Tiger a little toy car which he loves. I think I heard Tiger ask "What's this?" when he pointed to a part of the car. He hasn't repeated it since. That left me wonder if he actually said that. But I'm already very excited.
Saturday morning a psychologist Judy from Family Health Foundation Program came to test Tiger. She was very impressed with him. She said that he is very advanced in some aspect such as motor skills and language skills. I told her that I'm not sure about Tiger's fine moter skill since he only draws a little and probably only stacks two blocks. Well, as I was saying this, Tiger stacked five small blocks on a bottom up cup! Then Judy drew a straight line and I did too, then Tiger drew a straight line too! I was so surprised!