New school: Nakorn Sari

Today we tried out another new school. It's a Kindergarden called Nakorn Sari.

Now that we've got the hang of going to playgroup regularly 3 days a week, I wanted him to do something on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. Nakorn Sari is perfect because unlike most kinddies, they allow children to come on a daily basis. Other kindy usually prefer that you go to their school 5 days a week, which means we won't be able to go to Play Centre and Children Corner's again.

I like going to these 2 places. Not only do I get to socialize and make new friends with other mothers, I also get to go to a library which has always been my favorite activity, and to learn from other more experienced mothers who put a lot of effort into their lesson plans.

Anyway, back to the story. We love Nakorn Sari!

It's the kindergarden I would love to go to. There are toys everywhere. The pre-kindergarden kids are allowed to roam within limits during lesson time. They are not very strict with the young ones because they want to foster a love for school first, which is what Sam and I believe playgroup should be like. It's very cozy and really fun, and seriously a lot of toys!

It is Sean's heaven. He was so distracted with the toys that he really couldn't be bothered by the lesson. We stayed there the whole morning because Sean still had separation issues but the school is ok about parents hanging about until the children are happy and settled in schools. And it just so happened that there was a birthday party today. So Sean got to eat cakes and sweets on his first day.

Just to check whether he liked the school we asked him, " Do you like the school?"
Sean: No (while playing toys)
Us: You don't want to come here?
Sean: No (while playing some more)
When it was time to go home, as usual, he refused to go. The teacher told him that he could stay overnight by himself. That got him going. =P

That's just Sean. So hard to get him to do anything and once he does it, so hard to get him off it. Oh yeah, the 'Yes' stage is gone now.

But anyway, we're enrolling him anyway. Once Sean gets into the routine, I'm sure he'll look forward to going to school in the morning. Did I mention the TOYS???? he he he.... I wish I was a child again, then I can go to this school =D

I think he's weaned off!

Since I wrote about weaning Sean off slowly by getting him to drink a bottle of milk, he's refused to drink any milk. On a rare occasion I managed to get him to drink a small bottle of flavored milk but it's with much difficulty. So I changed tactic and told him he has to drink a small bottle of water before having his nen-nen at night.

In the morning when he normally wakes up and nen-nen, I asked him if he was hungry, and if he wanted to eat something. He doesn't really eat much but I try to get him to eat something to replace the usual morning breastmilk. Once we went to playgroup without his morning nen-nen, he was so hungry, and yet refused to eat any of the food I had with me. Sometimes he can be so stubborn!

The afternoon nap was the easiest to let go because I taught almost everyday last week. My student had her exams and we rearranged tuition dates. So since I wasn't at home, it was quite easy. But during the weekend, I gave in. I missed our nen-nen time too, so I wasn't very strict about it.

After I firmed my decision about weaning him off seriously, I consciously say No to him at almost every opportunity. The conversation usually goes like this:

Sean: Nen-nen?
Me: No. Do you want some milk?
Sean: No
Me: Water?
Sean: Water

At first, after his water, I would breastfed him until he slept. Later on, I told him, no more nen-nen, Let's hug instead. I'll read books to him while he nurses a bottle of water, which he doesn't really drink. He just needs it in his mouth. And then we hug and go to sleep.

Sean hasn't breastfed for 2 whole days now. I could have done it sooner but I felt rather sad too of having to end this part of our relationship. So I gave in once or twice. As much as I enjoy breastfeedng Sean and as much as he enjoys it, I believe it's time to move on. I keep telling him that he's now a big boy now, no more a baby. Then the little jokster will do a pretend baby cry 'Wa wa wa wa'.... =D

Last night I slept earlier, and Sean woke Sam up several time with his acrobatic sleeping position. He he he.. Now Sam nows what I go through every night when Sean crawls all over me. In the morning, Sean was sleeping with Sam and they made a very cute picture together.

Tonight, Sean didn't even ask for nen-nen. After bedtime reading with his bottle of water, he asked for a hug, i.e. he wants to be hugged to sleep, and then slept.

The sense of self

I almost forgot to blog about this. It came so naturally that I forgot to note the first day he said his name. I think it was around the beginning of April. So it's been almost a month that Sean has begun to call himself Sean.

I remember a funny incident just a while back when he couldn't say his name still. He knocked on Akong-Ama's room door. "knock knock" "Who's there?" And the he pointed to himself while waiting in front of the locked door. Now that he knows how to say his own name, that scene will never happen again. That was a really cute memory.

Sean is quite a joker sometimes.
I ask " What's your name?"
Sean: Sean
Me: Sean Wee
Sean : Sean Wee ue ue ue ue

and he does it with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. His sense of humour is coming out more often now.

I sometimes teach him to say his full name: Sean Gabriel Wee. He can go "Sean riel Wee" It's probably a bit of a mouthful for a boy who has just started to speak in 2-3 syllables. I'll wait. I'm happy enough for him to identify himself as 'Sean Wee' at the moment.

The "Yes" boy

For the longest time, all Sean said was "No!"

with a smattering of words here and there. So we told him, if he couldn't say 'Yes', he can say 'Ya'. So at least we could get him to agree to something. =P

Since about 2-3 weeks ago, a switch must have suddenly clicked in his brain, because out of a sudden, he became the 'Yes' boy. He replies everything with a 'Yes!', with an emphasis for the 'ssssss.....'. He even replies 'yes' when he means 'No'. *Roll eyes*... he he he...

During these last few weeks, he's been making progress in his speech by leaps and bounds. After waiting for the longest time for him to get onto 2-words phrase or just even 2-syllable words, it's all coming out now. He's even trying to sing along the theme songs on TV, but he can only get the last word in every sentence. His current favorite song to sing along is "Old McDonald", with the "iyayo", and all the animals sounds.

But what I'm probably happiest about is that he's finally calling me 'Mummy"! For the longest time, all the called me was "Mum", which is fine too. But his calling me "Mummy" is particularly sweet to the ears, especially when it accompanies lots of hugs and kisses. =D

What a day!

Yesterday Sean had a heck of a good time, playing almost non-stop from morning to night.

It started with Playgroup at Play Center in the morning, followed by lunch at Raju with the mummies and friends. Next, we went to Ikea to hang out since our house was having a black-out the whole day.

We had never dropped Sean off by himself for very long. We thought yesterday was a good day to do it since we were not in any hurry to do anything. We dropped him off at Ikea Smalland, but stayed outside within his sight in front over the glass windows of the ball pits. Once we thought he was occupied, we left.

We didn't go very far, just to make sure that if the call to come and pick him up because he was screaming his guts out, we could be back in a jiffy. We came back to check on him and he was happily watching Spongebob with the rest of the kids. And when we came back later, he came running to us, ready to get out. All in all it only lasted around 30 minutes. But that was a first for Sean being left with total strangers.

After that we went to the Ikea Cafe where Sean ran around and played for a very long time, never sitting still. After shopping for a train set, we went home. When he woke up half an hour, asking to go out. I called Samantha and she invited us to join them at their apartment's swimming pool instead. Now the last time I tried getting Sean into a swimming pool, he screamed and refused to enter the water. So we haven't been to the swimming pool since then.

I thought today was a good day to get him get comfortable near swimming pools and to show him that other kids enjoy being in the water. If he swims, that would be a bonus. It took 10 minutes just to get him to go near the swiming pool. Kai splashed water on Sean and Sean was complaining about his wet swim suit. I thought Oh No! If he complains about wet suit, how was he ever going to enter the pool?

Half an hour later, he went near the edge of the kiddy pool and fell head first! Of course, he was terribly frightened, but I just covered him with a towel and hugged him while we watched Kai and his friend playing in the water. Telling him over and over again it's okay to be wet.

Another half an hour passed, and he got interested to go near the pool again because Kai and his friend were really having a field of a day playing in the water. I went with him, and stood on the shallowest end of the pool and invited him in. So he went in and got a bit bolder, and then slipped and went splashing into the deeper end of the pool! I dived to get him out of water. So since my clothes were wet already, it was time to ditch it and just go into the water.

All the time showing that playing in the water was fun. He didn't swim, but hung onto me while in the water, but he had a great time and eventually let go to be in the water by himself. And after that refused to get out of the water! LOL.....

The process took almost 2 hours. But at least now, he is no longer fearful of the swimming pool, and we can plan to go for swimming lessons. Another first for Sean. On hindsight, it would probably be faster if I just went into the pool right at the beginning. =P

Later we went for dinner. Sean and Kai ran and ran around the restaurant, laughing, crawling under tables, etc. I was chasing them trying to get them sit down over and over again. The restaurant was small and it just wasn't save for them to run around. By the time we came home it was already 10pm, and I was totally bushed! But it looks to me, this is the type of day that satisfy Sean's need of activities.

Toilet Training

Since the time we introduced Sean to the potty quite a while ago, he has refused to get on the potty. He'll run away and hides in a corner to do his business. So potty training has been at a stand still. I've talked to other mummies who have successfully potty trained their children, their advice is to just get Sean out of his diapers. They say it takes a week to a month. So I decided to try the not wearing diaper at home method.

It's not that easy. Sean found it weird not to wear a diaper, so he kept crying and trying to wear his diaper at the beginning. So I didn't really push it.

But I thought I'll try it again tonight. So far this is what happened within the last hour. When I came out from the bathroom, he came to me with a marker in his hand. I thought he wanted to tell me that he colored something. I asked, "Did you draw something? Can you show me? " So he dutifully brought me to a corner of the room and pointed 'Mum, wet!" The next one was when he was playing on the cushion, and suddenly says "Wet!"

He's so used to peeing in the diaper that he still doesn't know how to tell me that he wants to pee. This looks like it's going to be a wet and smelly period. =P

Sean @ 31 months

Speech
I've been very worried about Sean's speech since he turned 2. It's obvious that he is not progressing in his speech the same as many other toddlers his age. Since then, I've consciously tried to get him to talk more. At first, he was resistant. He has this stubborn streak. If he doesn't want to do something, it's really difficult to get him to do it.

I've read that to teach a toddler who is slow in speech, you need to talk face to face with him and get him see the way your mouth moves as you enunciate each word. He didn't even want to see my mouth. So I thought sending him to a speech therapist at that stage would not be that useful. We had to do this at home first.

So we began to consciously trying to get him to talk, pronouncing words slowly and getting him to say it. Somewhere along, he got the Alphabet bug and really enjoyed reciting the alphabet. When we entered Children Corner, it so happened that they have a weekly lesson on letters. Perfect! Sean loves lesson time. He still didn't speak much though. Just recite the alphabet over and over again. He knows them all by heart but still doesn't quite get his 'F', 'W', and 'X'.

Since he started Playschool, he's starting to incorporate more words. Sometimes he's just so excited when he wants to say something, he ends up pointing and making urgent noises. Maybe he just have too much to say and doesn't know the words. I've got to constantly remind myself to say out the words rather than saying, "What is it? What are you trying to say?" He probably doesn't know what words he's trying to say. Playschool also reminded me about teaching Sean to pray. So we started having to pray for Sean to be able to speak clearly.

But I was still worried that when Sean turned 30 months, he still could not string 2 words together. The article I read said that it could be Autism, another article described about Childhood Apraxia. I mean people have told me many stories that someone they knew didn't speak until 3 or 4 years old, and they are perfectly fine. I know that but I think it's hard for a mother not to worry about her child.

Sean actually understands quite a lot. You can talk to him normally and he'll understand you. The problem is that he's finding it difficult to say words with 2 syllables. So when we went to get his 2 1/2 year jab at the pediatrician, we asked the doctor. He said we should start writing a list of words Sean uses in his speech before he can diagnose whether there's a problem or not. And to see if there are new words in his vocabulary. Which we are doing now.

The thing is Sean is a perfectly well-balanced child. He's happy when he's not in a whinny mood and trying to get his way. He's good a great sense of humour. He has lots of energy and is healthy (most of the time). He is very lively, which sometimes is difficult when he has to sit down at school and sing. He just wants to run around and dance, which he loves to do very much. Recently, when he hears a good dance tune, he breaks out into his own dance.

But the speech thing really bug me. But just last night and today, I heard him string 2 words together! Alleluya! Other kids his age can speak in sentences or even sing a song, but for this mummy, knowing my son is now beginning to put 2 words together is a break through! I'm definitely feeling relieved. I hope he'll progress more each day. =D

Breastfeeding Weaning program
So I'm still breastfeeding Sean. Some will say, it's good but many others are aghast. Even my own parents are telling me to quit immediately, actually they've been telling me for a long time. " He's sucking you out! You're too skinny! It's not good for you!"

Well.... it's not that I'm not trying to wean Sean but I haven't been able to do the "Just don't give him"method, because Sean cries loudly and turns to his daddy and point an accusing finger at me "Ne ne ne ne!" As if I had hurt him emotinally so badly. And my dear hubby jokingly tells him " Tell mummy, it's better than mango."and was not supportive of weaning abruptly. So it took quite a while before I get more support from hubby to wean Sean. Now at least when I say no to Sean he'll take my side "Mummy says no."

So we are on a gradual weaning program. First I had to get Sean interested in other milk first. We tried several new milk in the market and he's likes the Yes! Grape flavoured milk fo snack and the plain Dutchmilk for before sleeping. So I'm giving him a small bottle of milk before he can breastfeed. I tell him, he has to finish the small bottle of milk first before he can nen-nen. At first, he rejected the milk but now he's grudgingly accepting the fact that he has to drink the milk first. But you can see from his face that he'd rather not drink it. It's like drinking medicine to him. In fact, it's easier to get him to drink medicine than to drink milk!

So my hope is to get him to drink more milk and let my breastmilk supply slowly dry up. Let's hope it happens as planned.