1. He recited the whole Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star song on Sunday without needing a prompt!
It’s his bedtime song which we sing to him every night before he goes to sleep, lying in his bed with the lights off. He started saying a word at the end of the sentence after us, words like Star, Sky or in front, like Up Above. Then, he progressed to saying, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, though his version was more like, “fwinkle fwinkle…sar…up bove..” He would often start reciting ‘fwinkle, fwinkle…fwinkle fwinkle..” until we caught on and sang together with him because he did not know the rest of the sentences well. His was more of a recital than song though because he still does not know how to sing with tune.
So starting from last week, instead of singing the song for him, I started reciting with him. I would also purposely leave out certain words for him to say like what we do for story books. Gradually, he started voicing more words in a sentence, and I started leaving out more words for him to say, trying to prompt very minimally.
On Sunday, my mum was talking with him and prompted him to recite this song. She just assumed that he would know the words and didn’t prompt him. (She didn’t exactly know the words herself too) I kept quiet too, wondering what he would do. He proceeded to say, “Fwinkle, Fwinkle,…sar. How I won..ner, what you are…Up Above ….World so high, (l)ike a dia..mond in the sar! Fwinkle, Fwinkle, (l)..star. How I won..ner, what you are!” A continuous recital without stopping! I was so overjoyed and we both clapped so hard! It was the first time, he ever speaks so many words all at once so it’s an achievement for him.

2. He promptly went into a tantrum though and went to hit at the walls with his hands or throw himself to the floor because he didn’t want the song to end and we ‘ended’ for him when we clapped hands. So we had to coax him back and asked him to do once more. Again, he recited everything and this time, he himself clapped and went into a tantrum again, leaving my mum very puzzled. I explained that he just wanted to go on and on to get our attention. Dar had been throwing tantrums lately if something interesting ended for him. He just wanted to continue on and on. I’m surprised he was rather open and ‘performed’ in front of my mum because he usually hides his chatty self when he is with people other than Vincent or me.

3. He had been reciting some poetry or songs often in his own babbles. We believe they are Mandarin poetry or songs learnt in CC but we can’t recognise it. We have also been reading more chinese books to him especially during dinner time and he enjoys it.

4. He’s very obsessed with buses and cars lately. Daddy bought him a yellow die-cast toy car with doors that could open and close this evening to accompany his blue little car. He wouldn’t let us touch it or take it away. Instead, he kept holding onto both cars with two hands and letting them meet head-on in collisions.

He likes to open and close the doors of the toy vehicles.

5. He kept wanting to fall asleep lately while seated by himself in the bus. I had to keep tapping his legs or face to keep him awake.

6. Yet, he becomes very alert when he sits in a car. I carried him asleep into a taxi and he immediately perked up and looked out of the window, saying, “car car” and naming some objects he knows. He’s just very interested in looking at the surroundings as the vehicle moved.

7. He started saying, “…or..wie” when he spotted a vehicle but we didn’t know what he was talking about til Daddy said he must have been saying, “Lorry” since he taught Darius that and Darius was looking at it driving past the taxi.

8. He said, “Circle” as “xiao…gou“ today. At first, we thought he was saying “Xiao Gou” which means a puppy but his finger was tracing the circle in the table of his high chair while he kept saying it. Finally, we realised that he was saying “circle”.

9. He kept saying “笑了” then, “hahaha’. We were reading the Chinese Reader storybook and I taught him that it means laugh, hahaha. After a while, he started saying his version as “xiao wer“. This is the only word he actually pronounced in the right tone.  Will write a post on  his Chinese Learning later when I have enough information.

10. He understands “wet wet” and will say it when he sees water on the slides or a wet surface.

11. He signalled me that he wanted to pass motion! He came to me whining a little today while I was in the kitchen. I didn’t understand him but he stood outside the toilet door and even stepped into it. I had just brought him to pee so I thought it was impossible. I took his training pants off and asked him whether he wanted to pee but he didn’t. Then, I brought him outside the toilet and was about to get him to wear back the pants when he pushed my hand away and whined once more. He then stepped into the toilet himself. I quickly understood that he might want to pass motion though he had already done it in the early morning. And he did when he was placed on the toilet seat! I was utterly surprised that he would ‘show’ me he wanted to pass motion because he usually just does it in the training pants if it is in the afternoon and hides from us, afraid that we will know. BUT subsequently, he wetted himself twice through peeing in his training pants. The first time, he came to me and whined but I was too slow to respond to him, thinking he just wanted me to carry him and he started urinating. The second time, I was busy in the kitchen cooking and he didn’t dare to come find me due to the first experience where he wetted himself. He knew he had to say yet he still refuses to tell me. Oh well… at least there’s one success today.

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