Mom and Dad's Journal 2009

10.15.09 - What a big change a few weeks had made. You now love going to school. You beam on your way there as well as on the way back. When Mom ask you what you did in school, the first thing you tell Mom is that you "Eat snacks". Most of the time you do not eat, but you tell Mom that anyways. You would also tell Mom about your classmates and the activities you did that day.

You are like a sponge. You absorb everything you see and hear. You would say things that surprises Mom like: "Look at that", "Like this", "It is raining today", "Excellent!", "Very good RJ", "See you tomorrow", "Mommy will be right back", "Mama come back and get RJ", "That's better", "Where is _ _ ... here it is!" and so much more.

You are talking non- stop now and in sentences. You are a late talking but you sure caught up fast.

You have an excellent memory. You have memorized a lot of your favorite books and could fill in the missing words when we read to you. You can also read Green Hat, Blue Hat all by yourself. Your other favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

You can also sing a few songs now like: Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC, Wheels on the Bus, Si-tho Si-tsao (from Chao Hu). You also like to dance.

You know how to count your numbers from 1 - 20. You know all your ABC's and can also add some numbers such as 1+1, 2+2 up to 9+9. You can also spell a few words like: ant, cat, hat, bat, pie, papa, mama. These days, your favorite thing to play with are your Lego's. You have been using your imagination to create things on your own. You like to make forklifts, bulldozers, super skates, house, bird house, towers, etc...

10.10.09 - You have not taken a nap in a few days. Mom thinks that you are too young to not be taking naps but every time she brings you to your room for a nap, you end up looking out the window or just messing up your room. During the late afternoon today, you were playing at the basement while Mom was cooking. Dad was busy doing some chores. Dad went out to throw the garbage and when he came back to check on you, you were no where to be found. Dad thought that maybe you opened the door while he was out throwing the garbage. Mom kept on calling out your name and both of us run out of the house to search for you.

Luckily, Dad had the presence of mind to come back and check our bed. He saw you sleeping on Mom and Dad's bed. There were a lot of pillows so we did not see you right away. Also, we were not expecting you to be sleeping as you have never slept there before. I guess you were exhausted from not taking naps in awhile and just came up the stairs by yourself to sleep.

It was a scary experience, but a funny and memorable one as well.

Since you have not been napping, you have been going to bed at around 8:00 - 8:30 at night. You use to sleep at 11:00 or later. Within a few minutes of hitting your bed, you would be asleep unlike before when you have to lay there for an hour or so. You would also turn off the lights and say goodnight, like you want us to leave your room so that you can sleep.

09.03.09 - We are on our third day of potty training and you are doing an excellent job. You would now tell Mom if you need to go. You do not like wearing your diapers anymore. Mom and Dad are so proud of you. The side effects of potty training I guess is you are a little bit constipated. Hopefully, you will get over this real soon.

You are talking so much more these days. You can say almost anything. Earlier we went grocery shopping and you said pineapple, avocado, peaches, etc... You can also say a lot of Mandarin words.

People say that kids are like a sponge. Now I know what they mean. You absorb so much and you never seize to amaze me. We think you are a very smart little boy. You started talking late, but now you are saying so much and pronouncing words so clearly. You are even starting to tell Mom and Dad stories. You are one amazing young man. We have a lot of fun with you.

09.01.09 - Today is the second time you went to school. You did well until the last 15 minutes when you had to come in from the playground for story time. Mama heard you crying. You made great progress today. You told Mama that you had "snacks" in school. A word that we have not been using. On the way to the car, you stopped and told Mama that you are peeing. Mama was so surprised since this is your first time telling her that.

You woke up early from school today but you refused to take a nap. Based on my research, that just means that you are excited to learn new things and afraid to miss out if you take a snooze. Mama would bring you to your room and you will just explore in there. You would open your drawers and take out everything from there. You would also read books and sit by your window ledge. You don't seem to get tired until dinner time and by then, you are too tired to eat. You did this for 2 days straight but finally took a nap on the third day. Mom was relieved.

Since you did not want to take a nap and seem to take interest in potty training, we attempted potty training again today. So far, you only had 1 accident and did really well.08.27.09 - Today is the first day of school. Mama was so nervous that you might not like it but you did. You stayed through the whole 3 hours and you learned so much. When Mama asked you what you did, you said you ate crackers, raisins and drank water.

07.10.09 - You turned 32 months old today. Dad was just saying last night how you have turned into a little boy and really are no longer a baby. You are becoming really playful and love to tease Mama and Papa. You giggle and laugh loudly when we play. You like anything with wheels. Lately, your favorites are the construction trucks such as the Bob the Builder characters. You wake up saying yellow mowmow (meaning car), which is Scoop the digger from Bob the Builder. You also often ask Mom to buy you trucks and planes. You would say "Mama buy RJ Jayjay (airplane) or mohmoh (cars/trucks). When we go to the grocery, you would often pick up a truck and would want Mama to purchase it for you. Mom often have to distract you to put back the toy. :)

You can spell a few words such as "Papa", "Mama" and "Bob". You have also learned to say Mama's name "Anna" and Papa's name "Wa-pa-el" :) When asked what your name is, you would respond "RJ Yu".

Just this past week, you started truly copying what Papa and Mama are saying. You would say things like "I luv you!", "I want...", etc...

When asked if you would like a brother or a sister, you would respond "Ti-ti, Mei-mei, any". :) You often say hi to baby, rub and kiss Mama's tummy. You know that you will have a sibling soon and are very proud to call yourself "Ahiya RJ".

Before bed time, you always try to take your diapers off. At first we tried to put regular tape on your diapers, then we graduated to duct tape to prevent you from wetting your bed. Now, you wear a jumper to go to sleep. A couple of days ago, you managed to remove your jumper and everything else and you also pooped on your crib, monkey and duck. After a few days, you still remembered what you did because you would say "RJ pooh pooh on yah (duck) and hoho (monkey).

We got you an easel and you finally taking some interest in writing and coloring. You like to scribble on your easel as well as the table, sofa, etc... You enjoy coloring on your John Deere coloring book.

You can sing 2 songs now, one is Jay Jay the Jet Plane's theme song and the other is Family Guy.

We use to pick out videos for you to watch, now you would demand which DVD you would watch. This morning you wanted to watch Bob the Builder and when mom played the Chao Hu dvd you were a little bit upset. You know what you want now unlike before.

06.04.09 - Mom and Dad noticed that you can understand different languages i.e. when we say duck, you'll say "ya" in Mandarin; you know that Angkong is "Yehyeh", monkey is "hoho"; mom said "ya tsao" and you signed stinky; "ma-yi" is ant... there are many more words that you know, you just pick to use the easiest language.

You can now put 4 - 5 words together, although your vocabulary is still very limited. You will say something like papa, mama, rj eat; oh my one red apple; rj go wa (shovel); oh no rj pooh pooh; rj no wawa (does not have to go potty); ni-hao yeh-yeh (how are you grandpa?).

You love to dance specially to the tune of the Family Guy theme song. We have a couple of videos that we took of you dancing. Mom and Dad always get a good laugh from watching you.

Your favorite things to play with are trucks specially John Deere tractors. You can spend hours playing them. You also like your sand and water table.

You have been feeding yourself and eating with us during dinner time. You seem to take great pride in being able to eat by yourself. You are a very picky eater, you mostly like to eat bread, crackers and pasta or noodles. You refuse to eat rice.
You like to kiss Mama's tummy. :)

04.07.09 - You will turn 29 months in 3 days. You are getting to be really tall and more like a little person rather than a baby. You are growing up so fast and are changing equally as fast. We have not been taking as much pictures and videos of you but really should... such sweet and precious moments...

You are starting to put two words together. Over the weekend you said "Papa eat", "Mama eat" when you saw us eating. Yesterday, you saw a magazine cover with a picture of a lady showing only one of her eyes and you said "one eye". You also said "blue, green, white, o for orange" and your numbers from 1 to 10 except for 6, 7 and 10.

You can identify numbers from 1 - 20.

Now that you discovered talking, you can't stop. You talked and jumped/run all night long. We get worn out just by watching you, but we are happy that you are such a fun loving boy.

03.28.09 - You figured out how to open the door today. Papa was on Skype with Angkong and you went out of the office by yourself to check on Mama who is at the kitchen. You can easily turn the doornobs now so we have to be more vigilant.

We had a snow/ice storm today. You enjoyed looking at the snow fall and was so excited to get out of the house to play. We made snow angels and a snowman. This is your first time really playing in the snow.

Last week, you took great interest in your sand toys. You would wake up in the morning and that would be the first thing that you would play with. You would take them to the bath tub and play there for a long time. It's been more than a week and novelty has not worn off yet.

You are talking a lot more lately. You can say words like eat, ant, egg, eddie (from little people), etc... You are trying to immitate what you hear. You seem to be picking up new words everyday and that makes mom and dad quite happy.

You are also eating better. You can easily eat cheese, peanut butter and mahu sandwiches these days. You prefer eating bread to rice. You also like birthday noodles and you would suck each strand of noodle while eating. Yesterday, you ate banana without mama mashing it. Hopefully, you will take even more interest in a variety of food and eating.

You have been dancing and singing a lot lately. You sing/hum in tune and can do dances like the twist. You are a lot of fun to watch.

Last week, you were able to identify numbers 1 - 12 consistently. You were also able to count up to 5 objects and identify the corresponding numbers. Miss Joanna said that you are very advanced in that area as that is something that a 3 year old would do and not a 2 year old.

03.08.09 - Today is the first day of daylight savings time and to help you adjust we did not let you take a nap. Instead, Papa took you to the playground and the basement to play. You were able to hold up quite well without any fuss. Papa put you on your crib and shortly after (less than 1 minute), Mama went into your room. You pretended to snore when Mama asked you if you were sleeping. You then laughed and stood up. Mama did not realize that you know how to make snoring sounds. You are getting to be really playful.

03.04.09 - Today while watching a video with your friends at playgroup, you said "owl". You also said "RJ" for the first time, although it is not perfectly clear. You are learning new words almost everyday. Some words may miss a letter but you are trying and it is so much fun to watch. An few examples are: cow would be "ow", moo would be "oo", no "o" and three "twee". You are getting there little guy, keep up the good work!


02.24.09 - Yesterday was a good day, you finally said "Mama" and we caught it on video. :) As usual, when you learn a word you would not stop saying it until you go to bed. You kept on saying "Mama, Mama" the whole night and Mom was super happy. You have been saying "Papa" for months.

You are starting to pick up on your words. Last Thurdays, 02.19.09, you said "Go" when Miss Joanna was here. Mom and Miss Joanna looked at each other in surprise. On 02.18.09, you said "Bye/Hi" after your playgroup. Auntie Ying said that you also said "Hello" when you heard somebody on the phone. You also started saying "Hao" a week or so ago and you had the perfect intonation. When asked "Hao pu hao" you would say "Hao" and you love repeating it over and over again. It is fun to watch you say the words as you seem to be so proud to be able to do it. We know that in no time you will be speaking incessantly.

02.12.09 - You are very good at sorting like items, an example is you would put all the lemons in the yellow bowl, all the apples in the red bowl, all the green peppers in the green bowl, etc...

2 days ago you learned how to say the "G", yesterday you said "Q", you are on a roll. Funny thing is you can't say "R" and "J" which is your name.

You are a busy baby. On Mondays you go to the library for your reading time, every other Tuesdays you go to your Kindermusik class. Wednesdays are reserved for playgroup. Thursdays and Fridays are open, but they get filled up rather quickly with other activites such as going to the park, playgroups or running errands with Mom. Saturday and Sunday is family time for us.

01.12.09 - Mom and Dad got a trike for you yesterday and today you pedalled for the very first time.

Since the weather has been cold, we brought you slide inside the house and you have been playing with it cosistently for the past 2 days. You are having so much fun with it.

You know most of sounds of the alphabet, however, you have a tough time saying E. Last Wednesday night, it hit you and you started saying Eh, eh, eh... You were so funny. You woke up on Thursday morning and that was the first thing you said. Just a few more letters and you will have mastered the alphabet.

Tonight the three of us played Ring Around the Rosie, Aka Baka and Tic Tac Tic Tac. Those are your all time favorites as you giggle and laugh no matter how many times we've done it.

You are starting to get a little bit more possessive of your toys. You use to not care too much but lately you are a little bit more unwilling to share your toys. It is a stage that you will all go through. Hopefully, you will get over it soon.

You love little babies a lot. Every time we go to the library for your reading time or to Kindermusik you always have to take a little peak at the little baby on the carseat. You are the only toddler that seem to take an interest on babies in your class.

When Mama tells you not to do something, you seem to understand and obey. Earlier, you were playing with the drinking fountain at the library. Mom told you not to, and you stopped. Mom knew that you really wanted to play with it as you would take moms hand to kind of ask for permission to go and play with it again, but you did not. Mom was very proud of you.