Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Recently, S has fallen head over heels for silly rhyming books like Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. After reading one of these books, S will start to play with words and make up his own silly parables. So much so that he will lie in bed at night or at naptime for long periods of time just playing with words.

The other day we encouraged him to make up a poem and we wrote it down:

Sleep and the Leaf
Sleep in the lightbulb
Sleep in a tennis racket
Sleep in the forest
Sleep in the sunflower
Sleep in a bumblebee
Sleep on a camera
Sleep on a computer
Sleep in the restaurant
Sleep in the hot chocolate
Sleep in a jungle
Sleep in my shoe

As part of S's bedtime routine, I sing a couple of songs with him. This is actually relatively new. We used to sing to him a lot when he was very young as a way to soothe our difficult to settle baby. But once he was able to fall asleep better, we stopped doing it.

So after a story and tucking in, I will sing a lullaby, usually a tune from Mother Goose or Music Together classes. But no matter how soothing the lullaby is, it is always followed by a rousing rendition of O Canada. At the top of S's lungs.

I think he first heard the anthem on Kids CBC and one day I just started singing it and he already knew half the lyrics. Now, he can pretty much sing the whole thing on his own. Including his unique interpretation/pronunciation of the lyrics.

Nationalists would be proud of our child.

S started preschool last week. We’ve been excited and ready for him to start preschool for a while now. He’s at a stage where he needs more structure and routine. As well as stimulation other than ourselves or the unstructured daycare he was attending.

On his first day of school S woke up with the birds in anticipation. We did all the rituralistic stuff: new backpack, new shoes to wear inside the classroom, picked out his clothes, etc. S even ate his breakfast without the usual dawdling and the usual chitchat. When we got to school (early, of course), the hand off to his teachers was smooth. We found his cubby, he put up his picture and he barely realized that I was leaving. He needed to go do some work!

When I arrived that first day to pick him up, he was coming out of a music class and he was surprised to see me. Actually, I think he was a bit disappointed that it was already time to go. As the rest of the morning progressed, S talked about the little bits and pieces of his first day at school.

Now that we're into week 2, he loves going to school: “I want to go again and again and again!! I want to go everyday!! It’s so much fun!

Yesterday I babysat our 5 year old neighbour Tess. Clearly, she and S have been exposed to different worlds:

Tess: S, do you know what fairies are?

S: No.

T: Well, fairies are tiny little people that fly and have magical powers.

S: (eyes light up) You mean like superheroes?!!

T: What are superheroes?

S: Superheroes have super powers and they rescue and help people and save them from volcanoes and geysers and fires. What do fairies do?

T: Nothing. They just fly around.

Jr. is a messy eater. He always has been. He usually still wears a bib or more often, a bib-like alternative like a cloth napkin tied cowboy style.

Lo and behold, I have just discovered bib clips made by a Portland company, Kipiis. Basically, they are a funky, kid friendly version of what the dentist uses to clip a paper napkin around your neck. Why didn't I come across this a few years ago?! Why didn't I think of this?!

Although Jr is almost 3 1/2 years old, I did run out to buy one. We used it for dinner tonight and it was great. It kept the cloth napkin in place and because the napkin wasn't scrunched up to make a knot, there was lots of extra coverage. Handy for keeping all of Jr's overflow of cous cous (messy!) in one place.

S turned 3 at the end of March. Another year full of amazing changes zipped by and our toddler has become a little boy. I can't even begin to think of all the changes that have happened in the past year.

When S turned 2 1/2 years old he started to change remarkably. Something clicked and he went through a bit of a personality change. Up until that age, he was painfully shy and often clingy. It would often take him a long time to adjust to a new situation or new people. Now he's much more outgoing and adventurous.

And someone turned on the verbal tap and has left it on. S is a chatterbox. He is constantly talking with us or whoever he's with and when he's playing on his own. He picks up vocabulary quickly and uses them in context. He's shocked us often with new words or when he uses parts of speech that you don't usually hear 3 year olds use ("otherwise", "actually"). And lately he's picked up phrases that are quite entertaining: "Mommy, I don't feel like talking right now. I'm tired.", "It seems like he [new stuffed animal chick] needs a bath.", "This is the best chocolate cookie I ever had!!"

We love 3! Fewer tantrums. More independence. More conversations. More humour. S is fine company now. Before it was more about taking care of him but now there's more companionship. Mind you, there is a lot of caregiving that still takes place but everything seems so much more manageable now.

We actually feel like we have a bit more control over our lives again. And that those 2 a.m. feeds and 8 diaper changes/day are finally worth it!

Here I go again. Apologizing for not family blogging in months. Sorry.

So many changes over the past few months and so many things that I want to blog about. But no excuses for not blogging.

But I'm inspired to blog by my friend E who updates her family blog almost daily (in English AND Japanese) and by Glo who has moved to Shanghai and sends great accounts about her new life there and who will be starting a blog soon.

Do I back track and write about old stuff or move forward and write about new stuff. Whatever. I'll mix it up and just BLOG!

About a month ago I started to feel anxious. S was getting close to 3 years old and he still wasn't potty trained. More and more of his peers have been trained and it seemed like he's one of the last ones. He starts preschool in September and has to be able to toilet entirely on his own.

S has been using the potty to pee on and off for over a year now. It was just a matter of getting him to use it all the time and to get him to poop on it also. And it was also a matter of training ourselves to regularly take him to the bathroom whether we're at home or we're out. I think that has been one of our biggest challenges.

In the past week, something clicked. S is happy to go to the potty whenever we remind him and often he will exclaim that he has to go, runs to the potty, rips off his pants and diaper/underwear and go. He has also overcome his fear of pooping on the potty. This has been a very pleasant surprise for us! For 5 days in a row he has pooped willingly.

I'm sure we're in for a lot of accidents and set backs but we're happy with this progress. But then again we're not surprised that this is how his potty training is going to go. S is just the type of kid that "gets it" when he's good and ready.

S has developed a taste for sweets. Up until he was 2 1/2 he didn't show much interest in sweets like cookies, cake and candies. Then Halloween hit and he got some candy. We let him try it and he was curious but not too keen.

One day he wanted to try some Smarties. He sat at the dining room table with anticipation as I opened up a tiny box of Smarties for him. He gingerly took them out of the box and lined them up on the table. He then announced that he was going to try one. He picked a green one and began to lick it. I asked him "What does it taste like?" He responded, "It's sweet!" He licked and licked and a green river of drool ran down his chin. He then bit into the Smartie and exclaimed, "It's crunchy!!" The rest of the Smarties were not given as much care. Half way through the box, though, he decided that he had had enough and left the table.

Since then, S has been exposed to a variety of chocolates. We've given him bits of chocolate from various chocolatiers and amazingly his favourite is bittersweet--the darker, the better. He usually only wants a few bitefuls (he has even given back pieces when he feels he's had enough). He has graduated to enjoy chocolate desserts like brownies, cake, cookies and ice cream.

It's interesting to observe how S's tastes are changing. We're just sighing with relief that he's not a chocoholic--yet!

S is a huge Doodlebops fan. He will listen to the cd over and over again and can sing roughly 75% of the lyrics on his own without the cd. He'd rather stay home and watch the show on CBC than go somewhere fun like Science World. When he's playing with his cars he'll incorporate the Doodlebop characters into his play ("Rooney's driving this car." "This one is for Dee Dee."). At mealtime he will ask what the Doodlebops or supporting characters are eating. He breakdances like Moe.

I don't fully understand his fascination with the Doodlebops. I understand the catchy pop tunes (some of them are actually well crafted) and the life lessons of the shows. But have you seen them? They are basically clown-like characters that would have scared me as a child. It's funny that he adores them so much considering he is frightened by a lot of other things he sees on dvd's or children's programs.