Hope, expectation, Bright promises.
The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised
The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
J appeared(noted it was past tense) to be an apprehensive girl who didn't dare to try anything new and unfamiliar. During our Genting trip these 2 days, she amazed us as she willing to take the long curvy slide down to the wading pool in Rain Forest Splash World, indoor Theme Park of Genting Highland.
It was me who prompted her to take the slide. Initially she was reluctant to comply, and I had to drag her up the staircase that led to the pool. But after her 1st attempt, she enjoyed it so much and even went up the staircase and slide down all on her own. It might not be something to shout about for other parents, but being able to overcome her scaredy-self is definitely a HUGE achievement for either her or me and TK!
Moreover after she was encouraged by TK, she even took the risk adventurous enough to dash in and out the water falling mushroom(which she would never do it if it was her old self). We are proud of you, our lovely girl... really! Another incident that show some changes on her was, when I prompted her to try on hand waxing(after a few pestering) she agreed to give it a try. However she didn't get her hand wax done since she can't take heat of hand waxing procedure, and failed to maintain a certain hand posture before her hand wax was sculptured.
Nevertheless it's a very valuable attempt, I really feel grateful that she has finally start to overcome her fear of trying newbies! Congratulation to you my dearest sweet heart!
God gracious, now I just realize how I have slacking in updating my boy's milestone and development! Let's start with something general...
Height: Not available since I forgot to measure!
Weight: Gosh~! Last month during checkup he was 9.2KG!
Physically wise he is learning to hop like her jie jie, he bent his knee to spring from the ground and of course he didn't really get to jump since it still way beyond his ability. He can really dance by twitching, turning and spinning his body(his balancing has obviously improved tremendously). He walked up and down the staircase without holding the railing(sweats), and fell thrice from the staircase with a big thud! He has got 10 teeth, and pretty keen to give everyone a nasty bite!
Verbally... gosh~! I have to admit for boys at his age, he really can talk! He uttered with ease most monosyllabic(like tea, cat, bird, hat, hair, eat, milk, tree etc) and pronounced sluggishly multisyllabic words (for instance bamboo, Mc Donald, upstair, tv etc), but since he is good with baby signs, he has no problem to convey what he wants to us(especially me)!
He sings and hums songs too, like "pass the parcel" as "Ahhh the Di Di"(his own version but apparently the tune still there), and very keen on imitate what we said or taught him. He likes to make animal sounds like horsey(neh~! Shaking head to and fro), dog( woof with sign), cat(miao~! with sign), cow(moo~!) and etc.
Mental development wise, he is definitely a fast learner(TK and I agreed he learnt even faster than J) and very alert('Sing muk') too! He understands 95%(if not 99%) of what we said. A very handy boy(for now) and willing to pick up and throw rubbish into the dustbin, put his soiled nappy or pants into the laundry basket, place bowl or plate into the sink after used and place the books back after read to him. Sometimes he will help his Jie Jie to complete the chores that she reluctant to do too, like pick up toys and junks.
Diet... sigh~! He is getting picky on food, and always prefer eating meats that he hardly chew and swallow(normally he will munch until dried the juice before he spits out the debris). He eats potatoes, broccoli, carrot and green leafy vege's stem. Pathetically he likes tidbits and junk food like his Jie Jie does, although he normally nibbled a bit and passed it to me later. Still very rely on breastmilk, which I'm trying to weaned off the night feed so that he can have a more peaceful sleep(off late I found he woke up at least twice at night for nen nen). Aside from what he eat, he is quite a neat eater too. He will pick up the debris or crumbs that dropped, and put it into the plate or bowl that hold the particular food.
Potty train is progressing well(probably). I found there's privileged of having an elder siblings, which he urged himself to pee and poop like his jie jie does! Whenever J requested for loo, he wanted it badly too(sort of kiasu)! He'll hold his undies and tell us he wants to pee or poop. He used to inform us after he did his business, but now he can even tell us or bring us a potty before he pee or poop(most of the time, even if he was on night diaper).
Special skills... I would say he is now learning to count, I had make it a practice to count the steps when we walked downstairs(he loved it). Now when I say 'One', he would sometimes continue 'two'( he is good at reciting one, two, four, six, nine and ten). His vocabulary and general knowledge(animals kingdom is his best subject)has widely expanded compared the precious month, he will point out most objects or living being from the pictures we showed correctly. Unlike J, he enjoyed being questioned and will be proud to answer, which he really makes me proud of! He loves books(of his category) and will nonchalantly bubbled like he was telling a story or knows how to read(full of expression and action).
Brotherly relation with J, well... basically he will do whatever J does and hysterically excitedly play with her! A very jealousy boy(compared to the precious months), he will push J away if he found she clung to me or worse he'll throw something on J and me if J refused to move away(shake head)! Whenever I wanted to read to J, he will come forward with another book(his preference), then grabbed J's book and close it or threw it away before he sat on my laps and begged me to read for him. Of course I won't give in and he ended up whining and resulted none of J nor him got to listen to stories before bed!!!
It's never been easy to coach my 3 years old to read nor write, as she is a highly egoistic child! Despite we read to her a lot and she enjoyed listening to the books we recited and explained, she can't read... not even a single word. However she is gifted with incredible memory, to be precise she has amazingly good selective memory. She can memorized the most difficult(for me and papa)books' titles, storyline and content, and even chanting a Buddhist mantra that would take an adult ages to memorize it!
I have tried with flashing word cards( when she was much younger), phonics, and even words game that sort of like playing scrambles, yet still she has problem to identity which direction should a word start!! For instance, 'DOG'... she will arrange it as ' GOD' (slapped forehead)!
This post is actually to record an incident that happened this Sunday, when we were in Popular IOI mall. She took a paper back book and pestered me to buy for her, I looked at the price, it's RM9.90?!!(for such a thin paper back book) I didn't want to upset her with a stern 'No', thus I tried to reject her with a more indirect trick. I told her if she got to read the title of the book, then I'll buy her that book(of course in my mind I actually thought she can't never get it right) else she has to put it back from where she got it from!
To my surprise, She pointed at the title words by words and pronounced, "Dora's Picnic!" She got it all right, I know she might have tricked me with her intelligent as the front page showed a picture of Dora was having a picnic, but nevertheless it's a good reading attempt! Well done my lovely girl!
This book is received from Thomas Nelson Publisher as part of their booksneeze blogger program. The review is 100% opinion of my own.
I received this book last week on the rainy day, the postman was drenched in rain when he handed me the book... sort of like transpiring the content of this "On this day in Christian history", which has written by pastor, Robert J.Morgan.
I love History during my school days, and couldn't agree more with Aleksandr's saying in the preface, " If we don't know our own history, we will simply have to endure all the same mistakes, sacrifices, and absurdities all over again."
However, my mood instantly down after I have gone through a few stories in this book. Most Christian revolution heroes and saints were ended up in misfortune and disastrous, they were reprimanded, tortured and harassed inhumanly before they died. The stories were heart wrenching yet poignant, no matter how awful and drastic the condition and environment were, none of the heroes nor saints had given up preaching and inspiring their believers and nation.
Overall, it's a great Christianity History story book but definitely not for the faint hearted!
"Books Love Me!" will turn four in December and the lovely blog's owner, Josette is holding a coolest book giveaway! Yes, you stand a chance to win a book of your choice if you enter this contest. There will be FOUR winners.
*For international winners, books will be mailed from The Book Depository so please make sure they have the book you want.
*For Malaysian winners, the owner will get the book for you from MPH or Borders and have it sent to you.
Here are the details:
1. This giveaway is open to EVERYONE. Yes, you and you and all of you! And you over there! Make sure you have a mailing address.
2. You don't have to be a follower of her blogs to enter. But the blog's owner will be glad if you do!
3. You can spread the word on this book giveaway in any way you like - Facebook, Twitter, blog post, blog sidebar and more. Five extra entries each way for your hard work!
4. Closing date: Dec 8, 2010. Winners will be chosen via Random.org.
5. Fill in the form here. Good luck!
I didn't aspect X(14 months 3 weeks) will have tremendous improvement in speech. Today, after prompted by FIL, again he blurted words like, "ice cream, rubber band, ball ball, dog dog"! Wow... I reckon pretty soon he will be as bubbly and chirpy as his sister does!(smirk)
He obviously has advantage in speech since I read to him a lot. On top of that, he also has a talkative sister to tag around and most important he is a very energetic and active boy, which he trains his lungs from time to time and benefited him to have better speech development!
Yesterday evening, X(14 months 3 weeks) took out a "Health Today" magazine and handed it to FIL. FIL looked down, pointed to the magazine with US president on the cover and asked him, "Who is this?" before he say anything, FIL said "Obama!"
In a split second, FIL was amazed when X giggled happily and repeated after him, "Obama~!" loud and clear! I was astonished too to hear what he had recited! FIL then prompted him to speak again, he uttered another soundly "obama". FIl got over excited and kept badgering him to repeat more, but then he failed to say it.... instead of a clear and loud "Obama", he uttered, "O dada" ...
However, this morning when I showed him the magazine again, without prompting, he pointed at the cover and happily exclaimed, "Obama"! Hey, this reminds us that kids learn better in a spontaneously pace, don't they?!(wink)
