i guess i spoke too soon – “inspired” by discussions on the merits of the Peter & Jane series, i managed to persuade aniq to try it out one evening, by insisting that it’s “VERY EASY”.

it took a week of frustrations (on both sides) as we plodded through book 1a before he surprisingly picked up speed and went on to 1b.

i think one of the challenges i faced teaching the kid (other than the typically boyish playfulness and impatience) was having a younger sibling interrupt us ever so often – e.g. she’d demand for HER book to be read, or ask for a drink, or chatter on and on, or be plain mischievous and cheeky, as evident in the video below:

in any case, i have to say i feel a liiiitle bit relieved at having made actual progress in our “thorny but exciting” road to literacy.

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i’d been growing a liiiiittttle anxious that the boy is ending his K1 year and turning 5 in a few months’ time, and was still resisting our nudges to start reading independently.

sure, he knows his ABCs (occasionally mixing up the small letters ‘b’ and ‘d’, and a few others, especially when distracted – and boyyy is he easily distracted), and would randomly seek my confirmation that ‘snake’ starts with ‘s’, or ‘finger’ starts with ‘f’, or ‘Honda’ starts with ‘h’, or Toyota starts with ‘t’. (his current fascination is car brands, btw – according to him, we drive a ‘Honda e-way’, and a Beetle is a ‘Boxdragon’, which i repeatedly try to correct with the german pronunciation of ‘Volkswagen’, which in turn confuses him more since ‘V’ is ‘F’ and ‘W’ is ‘V’ in german… and his favourite car? a PROTON. gawwwwd, run me down with a Boxdragon, now!)

so anyway, i’d attempted an evergreen beginner-readers’ classic, the Peter & Jane series, which i’d read to him since he was still a crawling mass, but perhaps the too-early introduction, plus the antiquated illustrations and the stilted flow of words, did not interest him very much to pursue the perusal of Peter, Jane and their dog’s antics and adventures.

his preschool curriculum doesn’t impose spelling tests or rigourous worksheets, which i’m quite thankful for actually, coz mummy thinks he spends plenty of time in school in the day already and all she wants to do after coming home from work is play and talk and not have stressful evenings of drilling and cajoling a preschooler to “finish up his homework”, coz there’ll be a disgusting amount of years ahead yet for that. :S

having said that, i AM amazed at kids his age or younger already adept at doing spelling and math and various languages in other preschools. and VERY intimidated.

i think aniq’s reluctance to read probably has to do with a lack of confidence, of getting things wrong or from having been compared to his older cousins or friends who are already skilled readers. but a few factors are slowly helping him overcome this.

first, the sense of competitiveness he feels with his sister, who is admittedly displaying a quick grasp of language and literacy. and second, the lure of a reward….. now i KNOWWWW early childhood educators out there are probably GASPING in disapproval at this; that one should not ‘bribe’ a child to learn a skill that should be an intrinsic reward by itself, blablabla, but aww, what’s a little carrot at the end of the stick, i say? ;p oh stoppit, i DO all the other things i’m supposed to do too; bedtime stories, reading aloud, heaps of encouragement and praise, going to the library, be seen reading myself, blablabla, heyyy i’ve done the googling. but maybe some kids are just motivated… erm, differently?

in any case, this was the first book he’d agreed to read aloud in full, and it was quite an exasperating task to get him to recognise the words, what with his attention span. but after i’d video-ed him a few times, he felt more confident and let’s hope he moves on to other more, hmm, ‘exciting’ books, yes?

feel free to guess whether he memorised most, if not the entire thing, instead of actually reading the words, hehe.

oh, and so what WAS his reward?

it was on sale. (yeah, corrupt AND stingy parents. tsk.)

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every day i pose the same question to the both of them: “what did you do in school today?” and so far, the girl has been more forthcoming with her replies, varying them each day, sometimes answering “play toys”, or “i sing”, or “i draw”, or “i eat”, or “my friend cry” (nothing to do with what she did but a reply it is).

one of the things she readily picks up is the singing part. there’s this one particular song they sing in centres before every meal, a merry little ditty that mixes english and chinese and which i have NO IDEA half of what it means, other than that it asks all their teachers and friends to join them in the meal and to enjoy the food together… or something. obviously her so-called chinese is all rubbish, and i should probably rectify this with a proper ‘doa sebelum makan’, but… oh well.

i’d video-ed her for fun and simply suggested she say “thank you” at the end of each song, and out of the blue, she amended it herself with a “thank you everyone” (!) AND a bow, so that just… tickled me.

ohhh, little girl.

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somehow, baa baa black sheep has associated itself with a carefree big bad wolf, and doe, a deer, induces much emotion.

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auni dancing to vampire weekend’s giving up the gun.

enjoy your long (vampire) weekend!!

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(a little note: about the part on the rattlesnake, coincidentally, an episode of The Pink Panther was shown after we’d read this a few times together, where the panther accidentally stole a basket containing a baby instead of food during a picnic scene and in an effort to pacify the said baby, now crying, he’d removed the end of the rattlesnake’s tail to give to the baby as a rattle, and i guess this left such an impression with the kids that they associate it with this particular rattlesnake every time.)

(also, another note: they will inevitably ask the same question in every story with illustrations – “where’s the daddy/mummy/baby?” not sure why but there’s always a concern for the whereabouts of a missing family member in the story.)

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no! i most certainly did NOT teach her how to apply cosmetics! i swear! it is all mimicry!

in any case, she seems to have a knack at lipglossing sans mirror, just like me. won’t be long before she too can do it WHILE driving.

it’s, err, genetic.

*no alien figurines were harmed during the filming of this video.

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Two-year-olds are likely to:

well, we’re right on track, then.

from primping girl to domestic goddess!

dressing up:

making up:

pinkberry-ing:

mothering:

um, diapering?:

cooking:

cleaning:

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aniq at 2.5 years…

auni at 2 years…

whether they’ll eventually inherit their mommy’s dyscalculia is yet to be seen.

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My heart is yours.
It’s you that I hold on to.
That’s what I’ll do…..

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M: auni, tadi makan apa? (what did you eat today?)
A: asi! (nasi = rice)
M: lagi? (some more?)
A: eeken! (chicken, obviously, duh) ayam! (she has, as at last check, on 3 feb 2000hrs, decided to answer this instead of ‘eeken’.)
M: lagi?
A: opok! (keropok = fish cracker)
M: eh? sedap? (nice?)
A: dap!
M: pandai! (clever)

and when asked the various body parts in malay, she will obligingly twitch or point accordingly. yesterday, she saw her oma half-undressed and went, “eh, tak alu!” (no shame!).

ah. there is hope yet for you, my young padawan.

=========

M: aniq, ‘fish’ dalam melayu apa? (what is ‘fish’ in malay?)
A: …
M: (prompting with first syllable of ‘ikan’) eeee…?
A: eeee… er san!
M: O-O <--- (talk about culture shock.)

=========

in any case, they're both smitten by upin & ipin, you know, identical twin pre-schoolers who are the cutest cartoon characters, like EVUH, hailing from a fictional kampung in malaysia. (well, there was Lat the Kampung Boy back in the days - remember him? - but upin & ipin are so... arrrgh, DEM CUTE, and there are two of 'em!) the husband and i totally approve of the series, more so since the dialogue's so chuckle-worthy and in malay, and, i mean, WHO NEEDS TO LEARN SPANISH LAH, RIGHT?

so smitten by the characters and their antics, that even the little one has taken to mimicking the dialogue. a particular one that stuck to her was where the token effeminate youth in the kampung insists that his name's not Salleh but Sally, and attempts to spell it out: "S-I-L-L-Y", dismissing his misspelling with a flick of his limp wrist, "apa jer lah, tak kuasa aku." ("whatever!" - another thing about the beauty of localised humour - the english version simply does not translate sufficiently. right? betul betul betul?)

maybe i should send them to a kampung in malaysia, if anything, to brush up on their malay.

speaking of kampungs, the other night, in one of my meandering discussions with the little boy after an episode of upin & ipin, i described to him how in kampungs, they have no toilets with a flushing system, and potty business had to be done in an outhouse or behind bushes in the forest. (AS IF i know anything about rural life, hah! but mothers being mothers, must sound convincing and knowledgeable lah, right? betul betul betul?)

M: ingat tak, citer upin ipin, kawan cucu tok dalang sakit perut, nak pegi toilet tapi dia takut pasal dah malam abih tempat dia jauh? ahhh.
A: why??
M: ye laaah. kat kampung takde toilet.
A: why??
M: ye laaah. macam gitu. abih ingat tak, kawan cucu tok dalang nak berak, dia sembunyi belakang semak-samun? (at this point, even i can’t believe i just said ‘semak-samun’, an almost archaic word for thicket/undergrowth.)
A: why??
M: ye lah. pasal takde toilet!!

you can imagine how this conversation went on – endlessly.

like this bridge we trekked last weekend, in our attempt to bring the children close to nature.

well, as close as we could get to the semak-semak, anyway. no potty business going on here, though. it’s as sterile as everything typically singaporean is.

and mummy – again, ever-convincing and knowledgeable – explained away the many whys. sometimes with more than a “ye laah”.

yes. trees and branches may fall. take care.

berhati-hati di semak-samun, kenak-kanak.

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a short slideshow of our trip to bali recently, where we stayed at the intercontinental bali resort for four days. proper entry later, my hairy valentines.

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lost a few blog posts, including the last one on aniq’s birthday, thanks to some problem with wordpress and the server. sighs.

blogging is a somewhat emotionally taxing thing for me, and when i lose important posts like that, it really sucks. yet after so many times being let down by technology, i still never learn my lesson to BACK the eff UP.

sorry, aniq, if you ever get to read this blog and find that mummy lost this year’s post – mummy’s such an unreliable blogger. (and please pardon my french. yes, “the eff”, it’s french, bad french. really. don’t use it, ok.)

***

we didn’t do a big birthday bash this time round, what with the holiday trip to bali and all (which he really enjoyed, btw – though, in all his four-year-oldness, he has no inkling that the holiday was in compensation for a big birthday bash).

what we did instead was do a typical cake-cutting and goody-bag-giving session with his friends in school. having a birthday at the end of the year means you’ve done this birthday routine more than a dozen times throughout the year, and well, practice makes perfect. his friends and him have it all down pat – the singing of birthday song, the posing for pictures, the thanking in unison. such a difference a year makes! last year when he first celebrated his birthday in school, the kids were all so… blur and clueless. now – cuteness personified.

EVIDENCE OF CUTENESS:

*note the boy beaming and kept asking if he could cut the cake, his sister beside him equally beaming.

*the sister in the midst happily licking away at the cupcake icing.

and having your birthday at the end of the year means having to wait for your turn. torturous when you’re seemingly forever having to tell people you’re three years old when you’re supposed to be four already. frustrating when it’s everyone else’s birthday – your friends’, your parents’ friend, your oma’s, even your own mother’s, but not yours, not yet. heck, i kinda remember that feeling.

so pardon me for that bit of momzilla moment i get when it comes to his birthday. mommy’s got a soft spot for december babies like herself. :p

his nursery class – K1 next year, gasp.

one of the few times we get to see the kids whose names we only know from the boy’s daily reports.

sugary treats from Simplycupcakes.

sugary hugs and kisses from the birthday boy.

you know it’s worth whatever little effort you put in to make them feel special, especially when they’re old enough to say “thank you mummy” and “i like mummy”. (i’m recalibrating that word “like” to “love” – understandably, the concept’s a little confusing for him at the moment, especially when barney says/sings the word ‘love’ in such a disposable, wimpy, babyish, and admittedly un-macho, manner. he’s getting there. “like is small, love is BIG”, i tell him. “ok lah, i LOVE mummy,” he says.)

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been meaning to post this up a few days ago.

i’d screamed my head off each time she attempted to climb over the back of our new sofa, and also at her brother whom she was imitating. her daddy told me it was no use coz she’d already done this stunt a few times, but only at the point of me capturing this vid that i discovered she really could do it – without harming herself, apparently.

grrrr.

note her “dare-you-to-stop-me” look while she performed the stunt for my benefit, and then gleefully dancing her arms about as she tottered away from me in escape from persecution.

i once overheard an old makcik, a long time ago in my teenage days, loudly warning her young charges who were swinging on railings or whatever – “jangan buat gitu! nanti kau jatuh, kepala kau pecah!” and i remembered thinking, come on, makcik, seriously? break his head? how melodramatic! hyperbolic! exaggerating! coz it seemed ridiculous that a kid, an agile one at that, could drop on his head from swinging on some mere low railings, and have his skull crack open, spilling its bloody content out all over the ground.

but now, many years later and having become a mom, the image has turned into a highly possible (and gory) reality, and the same phrase, which i once scoffed indignantly at in my arrogant youth, is perpetuated on my very own children.

“TURUN! JANGAN BUAT GITU, NANTI KAU JATUH, KEPALA KAU PECAAAAH!”

yes, i have turned into that histrionic makcik after all, in this great, karmic circle of life.

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