Darius has expanded his speech after the Langkawi Trip. He just can’t stop babbling and making new words or sounds. His language barrier has suddenly opened up.

(I just realised Darius is 17months today! How time flies! Guess the below could count for some of his 16-17months updates! I will still do the 17month update…but not sure when will finish writing.. =.=”)

Speech

奶奶

He spoke a new word last Wednesday after our trip and it’s still a hot favourite now. I said, “你要喝奶奶吗？-meaning Do you want to drink milk milk?(not grandmother)” like what I usually do and proceeded to the kitchen. He actually repeated “奶奶- nai nai” after me but he would say it both words in the first tone instead of second & third. We both heard it and were very surprised. He had since said this all the time, mostly when I’m really making milk for him. Sometimes, when it’s near breakfast or lunchtime, he also said this. I wondered if he’s getting confused or it’s just his word to mean, “food or hunger”.

There’s also variations of this word when he said it again and again. Sometimes, na na, sometimes, nan na. I don’t teach him that the word is ‘nen nen’ because I wish to use actual words whenever possible but ‘niu nai’ is more difficult. My relatives are confused when I tell them though because they think he’s referring to his grandma. In fact, he still does not know how to call his paternal grandparents since he only sees them once a week. I would also prefer him to call Po Po instead, more ‘correct’.

Monday Night 14 Dec, when hubby was making milk for him, he was again going “nai nai”, “nai nai” after us. Suddenly while standing there with hubby about to start putting in the powder, he said something like, “我要喝奶奶!” the nai nai word was shouted out loud!  Not every word was clearly spoken but it sounded exactly. I immediately checked with hubby for I was in the living room when I heard it and he told me he heard this exact sentence too! So is he finally speaking up now? And in sentences???

This was what I had been constantly teaching him since many months ago. I kept telling him everytime he cried that he must let me know what is it exactly he wanted, by speaking to me. I tell him, you must say, “我要….我要ssh ssh, 我要mum mum, 我要睡觉, 我要喝奶)” Then, I keep practising these four sentences with him where he would shyly try to form a mouth shape but no sound comes out. I would keep repeating this til he started crying to be released because he felt pressurised. Sigh. It is difficult teaching him words because he’s too cautious, afraid that what he says would be a mistake though I had never punished him for saying anything wrong.

This morning (Tues, 15 Dec), while trying to wake me up, he leaned over me and said, “喝奶”. I’ll try to catch a video someday, but it sounded like a foreigner speaking Mandarin. The words were correct but the sounds were all of the first tone. He then repeated it again when he heard me asking him, “你要喝奶奶?” in my dreamy state. I think he said this more to get my reaction to wake me up. Or maybe he was hungry for his breakfast?

Then, after the walk today, he again chanting “喝奶” , “喝奶”. I think he meant he wanted a drink of water cos after we came back, he took a bath and I hadn’t gave him anything to quench his thirst. I was mixing the orange juice on the high table with honey as he watched in anticipation. Then, I had to walk over to the sink to transfer it to the straw bottle. At this moment, he shouted in whiny protest, “我要!” It was not correctly dictated but it sounded and matched to the situation. Finally, I’m starting to ‘hear’ his babbles and making out words! I’m really excited to start hearing him speak properly and holding a conversation with him.

睡觉了

While putting him to bed one day last week, he suddenly uttered, “睡觉了”. Not clear diction but sounded like it which was heard by the both of us. This is what we say to him daily and every time he’s brought to the mattress to sleep. Surprised me again because he couldn’t even say one word properly and now he’s trying to say a short phase or sentence.

爸爸。。。爸爸。。。我们回來了

Also discovered on Last Thursday that he would say, “爸爸…爸爸” pre-empting the sentence in the Hansel & Gretel Story (World Classic Fairytales Edutainment Programme Audio & Animation DVD).

As there was a pause just before the 爸爸 voice came in, he said it out first, knowing exactly that there’s supposed to be a ‘爸爸’ coming up! It again gave me a surprise that he actually remembers the stories due to him hearing it daily and is now able to follow the words. Then, on Friday, he even followed the character to say “我们回來了” in high pitch (listen to the audio below near the ending part. You can hear his little voice as an ‘extra’) cos the voice-over was by a little gal. It wasn’t very clear but sounded similar. We both couldn’t help laughing at this.

(hear him below by clicking on the ‘play’)

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虎

He had started saying “Hu” a new word too where he would actually purse his lips together as if blowing air. He says this in the morning when I sit in front of him singing his pooping song, “两只老虎”. Again, I didn’t know that he could say this word. I would say it to him and at the same time, blow air at him. It made him giggle so much.

小蜜蜂。。。嗡嗡嗡

I was feeding him porridge and singing this song for him when he actually said, “嗡嗡嗡 (weng weng weng)” right after I sang “小蜜蜂” as if helping me to sing and fill in what’s to come after. It caught me by surprise too. I didn’t expect that he would say ‘weng’ so accurately. However, he refused to say any more after I try a few times. Then, after lunch, I played the Chinese Children Songs CD (绮丽的童年) for him and he sang after the song again! going “Weng weng”!

泥娃娃

When I played him the Chinese Children Songs CD (绮丽的童年), he also said, “娃娃 Wa Wa” after the first song belted out 泥娃娃…泥娃娃…

He’s suddenly doing all these imitating and talking of our speech, songs and stories he heard after our Langkawi trip. Interestingly, he hadn’t said all these before the trip.

Behaviour

♥ GOING OUT

When we opened the door to go out, he would actually go and take up his sandals and hold them, knowing he needs us to help him wear it to go out. This morning, I opened the front door and he was excitedly waiting. Then I left him at the front door and went to my master bedroom’s bathroom. I washed my face, turned and realised he had deposited something at my feet. His SANDALS! He was outside the bathroom and he placed the sandals inside. He doesn’t take them back though and ran off to the front door again after I came out.

♥ FEAR

He’s suddenly having a huge reaction of fear where his entire body would shake and he gives a shout.

That day, when he viewed the story of 火车要开了 on the iPod Touch sitting in hubby’s lap, hubby said he started shaking when the music turned eerie as the little boy entered the cave of darkness and saw black creatures. He gave a shout too which shocked both of us because we didn’t know he was so afraid. He had viewed it numerous times. This was the first time he was so afraid.

Fear of S
This morning, I got to witness the ‘bodily shake of fear’ as we watched the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD. Upon reaching the letter R he started getting down the chair to stand beside me, with his palms on the coffee table. I wondered why but didn’t bother. Then, the Letter S scene came up. He looked at me and gave a little whine. I know he has a reaction to S but I thought it’s okay. We continued with the scene til S professor said, “Sssh” with his whole body twisting, tongue spitting and round eyes bulging out. At this point, his whole body shook uncontrollably and he shouted out loud, eyes in tears. I quickly held him and he calmed down with no crying and still tried to turn back to look at the tv.

I was shocked at his reaction and realised that the scene did look very scary. I have a fear of snakes from young but I didn’t know he has it too. Could my fear have passed on to him?

From these observations, we realised too that he understands a whole lot more now. He actually understood that Tom was afraid in the dark cave and got too immersed as if he was experiencing it too.

♥ AAAHS…

He will specially “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…..” for a long time to get people to ahhh back with him, like a Aahhing match to see who outlast. I did this for fun with him but nowadays, he started doing this with his uncle, aunt and grandparents too after he attended the wedding lunch and they saw him “aaaahing” when they are doing the “Yum Seng”.

He also “ahh…” with the Heineken Advertisement when we happened to switch on the tv. I think almost every kid is doing this now… hee.

He also “ahhh” when he hears other kids crying and even follows what they says sometimes. His hearing is so good that a child can be saying something or crying at one end of the shopping department and he will be imitating them at the other end… which amuses us every time.

And his reaction to this wonderful Movie trailer? (gotta watch this…)

He ahhs when the Namibia baby shrieked and smiled at him. And he follows the baby tapping on the stone by tapping his hands too.

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